Chairman Kelvin Thomas believes Oxford United are better equipped to last the distance this season in the quest for promotion than they were three years ago.

He says that is no disrespect to those involved in 2006-7, and indeed he was one of them, but there is much more knowledge of what the Conference is all about now than there was then.

The current side, under manager Chris Wilder, are on a ten-game unbeaten start to the season, which includes eight wins, and they are seven points clear at the top.

Bookmakers Blue Square now make them 5-4 favourites for the title, with Luton dropping to 5-2 following their 2-0 defeat by the U’s last week.

But no-one at Oxford is bragging about their position, especially after the painful experience of 2006-7 when the U’s were unbeaten for the first 18 games, and at one stage led the division by 12 points, but were overhauled by Dagenham & Redbridge.

Nevertheless, Wilder looks to have a strong squad and everyone at the club is wiser to what the league is like.

“I think we are better equipped, we have more knowledge and experience than we did three years ago, and that’s no disrespect to anyone who was involved then – and I was one of them,” Thomas said.

“But our experience of Non-League then was limited. We’ve now got – and it was one of the things we made a point of bringing in – players and staff who have experience at this level, and Chris has brought in some good players.

“The hardest thing about this division is that it’s only one up automatically. That makes it one of the hardest leagues to get out of in the world.”

He added: “There’s a long, long way to go. As I said after Luton, there was still the equivalent of a whole Premier League season still to play.

“I’m looking it as a countdown . . . after the first game, that meant it was 45 to go. After this weekend we’ll be almost a quarter of the way through, but that just tells me there’s three-quarters of the season left!