We always knew that Oxford United fans were a passionate bunch.

And they are proving it by flocking to buy season tickets for the coming season.

The number snapped up so far has exceeded that for last season when United were in the Football League.

We might have expected support to wane after the club's relegation to the Conference.

At the end of last season, we expressed the hope that the thousands of fans who packed the Kassam Stadium for the final match, as United made a desperate attempt to avoid the drop, would stay with the club.

We feared that a good proportion might find Conference football unattractive and transfer their allegiance elsewhere, if not Swindon to new Premiership club Reading or Wycombe. But not a bit of it.

A total of 2,200 season tickets have so far been sold and the new season is still five weeks away.

Admittedly, there was an air of gloom over United last year, with early season expectations quickly dimmed by a poor run of results.

The team struggled from the start, never recovered and it was no surprise when they finally lost their Football League place after 44 years.

But this year, despite the team being in a lower division, there is optimism in abundance.

In Nick Merry and Jim Smith, United have a duo committed to the club's future success.

The players can be sure of support from the terraces.

Now all they have to do is to repay that loyalty by quickly regaining their place in League 2.