Manager Chris Wilder has denied that Oxford United blew their title chance and claimed their rivals have just been better at the crunch time.

After seeing their automatic promotion hopes effectively die at Stevenage, he acknowledged the despair of fans who were so optimistic in the months before Christmas when the U’s led the Blue Square Premier for so long.

Now Stevenage are strong favourites for the title, though they may yet be pushed by Luton, while Oxford are left with the lottery of the play-offs.

And Wilder stresses the importance of the team putting some wins together, and improving in the pressure games, to give themselves a chance of getting through.

To do that, they would still have to get past either Stevenage, who have now reeled off eight successive league wins, or Luton, who are on a seven-match winning streak.

By contrast, Oxford have won just one of their last seven games, with four draws in that time.

“We’ve not chucked anything away,” Wilder said. “We’ve just not been good enough in the last two or three weeks.

“There’s a thin dividing line. The draws we’ve had could quite easily have been turned into wins, and the result could have been different at Stevenage, but it wasn’t to be.

“Stevenage’s players have put themselves in a great position, and they’re a decent side. Let’s take nothing away from them.

“We’ve got some good players and they’ve got to be braver on the ball.

“We turned the ball over far too many times and that’s been a feature of our play in the last three or four weeks.

“And all of a sudden we seem to lack courage.

“We’ve got to make sure we get back to that, are braver, and make better decisions in and around the final third.”

United need to regain the winning habit quickly and the confidence they had earlier in the campaign before the season ends.

Wilder added: “We’ve got to make sure we now go and win games in the play-offs, and win games in case at the top of the table teams slip up.

“We’ve got to make sure we gain a bit of momentum, and get some wins and results under our belt.”

* The FA have upheld the Conference’s decision to expunge Chester City’s results after an appeal was ruled to be out of time.

A number of Blue Square Premier clubs, including Oxford United, wanted Chester’s record to stand, but have been told their appeal was too late.