IT’S a cool, but bright morning at the Bicester & North Oxford Sports Association base that Oxford United use as their training ground and the players have been arriving for another intense and hard-working session.

There’s plenty of banter flying around, especially from the likes of Adam Murray and strikers James Constable and Matt Green.

They have been first-team regulars from day one this season.

But there is one player who has been on the outside looking in, and whose life has been turned upside down as he is no longer playing in front of 5,000 fans every other week.

From having been the Oxford United No 1 for the last four and a half years and a near ever-present since the U’s dropped into the Conference, Billy Turley has had to suddenly accept being second-choice goalkeeper.

An iconic figure, Turley is larger-than-life, charismatic or simply a nutter, depending on your viewpoint.

In the past he has had blazing rows on the pitch with other United players when they have not concentrated fully.

But though he himself has made errors – including missing a penalty in the play-off shoot-out loss to Exeter in 2007 – the one accusation that can never be levelled at the Wolverhampton-born goalkeeper is a lack of passion, or commitment to Oxford United.

So has it been difficult dropping to the bench after so many years as the first-choice goalkeeper?

“Yes,” he says, then pauses, “it’s been difficult, but I look at the collective picture.

“I think that’s the biggest thing. I can see the difference in the five years I’ve been here. This year it’s not about individuals, it’s a collective thing and is about the whole squad – the staff, the squad of players, even the girls that do the tea – everyone’s got the same ambition.

“Obviously I was disappointed not to start, but I’m old enough and wise enough to understand. The team’s done absolutely fantastic, and to be fair, the gaffer’s been absolutely fantastic.

“The 21 games before (at the end of last season) when we did so well, I played a part in that, and through his next 20 games (this season) he’s been brilliant.

“How can I argue with it? Ryan’s come in and he’s done excellent, the back four in front of him have been brilliant, the team as a whole – the whole squad with the people that have come in – have been excellent.

“I’ll keep training hard and keep doing what I’m doing, but everyone’s got their eye on the main goal this year and everyone pulls in the same direction.”

Is there a part of Turley that hopes Ryan Clarke gets an injury or has a bad game, so he gets back in the side?

“I spoke to Ryan [about this] the other day, funnily enough,” Turley says.

“I saw a piece that David James did where he was on the England bench, and he said it was the first time he never wished bad on the other keeper, the keeper that was playing.

“I’ve never done that. There is a Keeper’s Union.

“I understand it would have been hard for Ryan to come in, I think he was a bit nervous for the first couple of games, but since then he’s been excellent.

“I train with him every day, I push him all the way, and I warm him up before the game.

“I’m the first one to shake his hand before a game . . . I’ve never wished ill on another keeper like that, I think it’s bad karma actually. If you wish bad on someone else, it’s going to come around to you.

“We’ve all got one goal, and I’d never think ill of Ryan in a game.”

It was a brave decision from the manager, wasn’t it, to go with Ryan?

“I was ill in pre-season, I think I missed three games, and ended up having only one proper training week. The manager made a decision. Ryan had played more games than me in pre-season and so he started with him.

“Am I going to stand there and say he made the wrong decision? I can’t say that, he’s the manager of the football club. It was the right decision. Some might say it was a brave decision.

“I haven’t a bad word to say about the manager, and he’s going to be an even better manager. As we’ve seen (with Peterborough’s interest), he’s thought of really highly.

“Did I like him for a day? No. Do I like him now? Of course I do. As I said, it was the decision he made, I got on with it.

“Was I disappointed? Of course I was, because I wanted to play every game.”