In general, a point away is a good result – providing you keep winning your home games.

And that’s what United will be endeavouring to do against Gateshead on Saturday.

Although their last home match against Kettering was a disappointing 1-1 stalemate, it was the surprise 2-1 defeat at home to Hayes & Yeading which messed up Oxford’s title charge.

Gateshead, promoted from Blue Square North last season will be battling for everything as they bid to stay up, but this is a must-win match for the U’s.

However, manager Chris Wilder said the battling 1-1 draw at Rushden on Wednesday night demonstrated there’s no shortage of character in his team.

And Rushden, it should be remembered, don’t concede many goals.

Their previous eight home results were: 1-0, 2-1, 4-1, 0-0, 2-0, 1-0, 0-0 and 8-0.

“It was difficult for our front players because they’ve got decent defenders, good players like Jamie Stuart, and have wrapped up a lot of teams this season,” Wilder said.

“They have a difficult system to play against, with one sitting defender, Paul Terry, as a front screen.

“It’s difficult to get it into the front men, so you’ve got to go a different way sometimes.

“I thought it was a competitive game. We were at it all the time and in the second half we got on the front foot.

“We went behind in the game, but showed great character and desire to get ourselves back in it, and went for the win at the end.

“We made a mistake with their goal, and the initial slip (by Damian Batt), they’ve scored, but we recovered, equalised, and driven the game forward.

“But if people think we’re going to come here and win 2-0 or 3-0, it just doesn’t work like that.”

It was Simon Clist, involved in so much in the game, whose persistence paved the way for Sam Deering’s fine equaliser.

Clist says that if the Oxford players can apply themselves the way they did at Nene Park, they’ll have a real chance of going up.

“It’s a tough place to come so it was a good point,” said the midfielder.

“Obviously we would have liked the win but the lads worked hard and gave their all.

“Maybe we could have done a bit better for their goal but it was a good away performance.”

With Deering’s goal, he explained: “I managed to win the second ball then Sam challenged for it and the keeper looked like he was going to get it and I managed to make a challenge on him.

“It broke loose and Sam finished it well.

“It was not a game where we had a lot of chances, but it was a hard-fought game from us.

“There wasn’t a lot of football played by them. It was a good away performance the way we applied ourselves.”

Gateshead, who will be making their first visit to Oxford, have Daryl Clare up front.

Clare is a prolific goalscorer, having hit 154 goals in 304 starts, and he played for Mansfield this season in their 2-1 win over Oxford United at Field Mill.

Clist said: “You like to win your home games and draw away, so it’s one we’ll be looking to win.

“Stevenage have got Crawley away, so that’s a tough game for them.

“Plenty can still happen, there’s a lot of games left and plenty of points to play for, and a lot of tough teams for everyone to play.”

Gateshead will certainly want to secure safety before their last two games of the season – against Stevenage and AFC Wimbledon.

Oxford won 1-0 in the north-east last September, with Matt Green getting their winner.

Gateshead triumphed 2-0 at Mansfield on February 6 but haven’t won away since.