Keeping it clean

It was the U’s first shutout for 24 games – since the 2-0 win at Hereford on September 11.

And it came after Wilder urged his players to withstand whatever their play-off rivals threw at them.

“Obviously we want to win every game,” said Wilder. “But this was an excellent result and I found out a lot about my team.

“I was disappointed last Tuesday that we were a bit of a soft touch, but today we stood up to everything.”

Yet he stressed it was only a small part of the match in which the U’s were under pressure.

“Gillingham had five minutes at the start and ten at the end,” he said.

“But that last ten minutes wasn’t a true reflection of the whole game because we more than held our own.

“We had to be strong physically and mentally. I knew with the football we play we would be able to open them up, and we did that a couple of times.”

Oxford climbed one place to ninth in League Two.

Wilder was surprised that Gillingham centre back Matt Lawrence escaped a red card for what appeared to be a stamp.

The referee’s leniency – he later let Lawrence off for further fouls – was in stark contrast to the red card dished out to Damian Batt for his challenge on Anthony Grant at Roots Hall, which led to a war of words between Wilder and the Southend midfielder.

“I think Gillingham’s bench were maybe resigned to losing the boy Lawrence just before half-time,” said United’s manager.

“It looked to quite a few people that he had a bit of a stamp, but the referee didn’t think he’d done enough to send him off. It was apparently an accidental stamp – so I don’t know what that means!

“And that nugget at Southend who’s had a pop at me . . . I wasn’t having a go at him for diving in that incident, because it was a reckless tackle by Batt, I was having a go at him for diving continuously through the game.

“But I enjoyed today because, even though conditions were not great, both teams have had a real go at it.”