WITHIN hours of Oxford United clinching their place back in the Football League, manager Chris Wilder was looking to the future, and towards building a team with more quality that could progress in League Two.

He began by placing a lot of emphasis on youth and energy, with most of his summer captures under 25.

Billy Turley, Kevin Sandwith, Chris Hargreaves and Franny Green were immediately released as Wilder began his rebuilding job.

During the summer, Bridle Insurance replaced Buildbase as the club’s new shirt sponsors, and television sports presenter Jim Rosenthal joined the board.

New signings Harry Worley, Simon Heslop and Asa Hall all started the first match back, a 0-0 draw at Burton.

New right back Ben Purkiss would also get his chance soon and the four of them were joined not long after by Tom Craddock, an initial £50,000 signing from Luton.

It was, in many ways, an odd start to the season.

There were two big wins – 6-1 in the Carling Cup against League One Bristol Rovers and 4-0 against Morecambe. But, in between, Oxford managed just one goal in five games.

One of those matches, however, was a courageous, battling performance at Premier League West Ham in the Carling Cup – Oxford taking nearly 4,000 fans to Upton Park.

The Hammers won 1-0 only thanks to a goal three minutes into stoppage time from Scott Parker.

Sam Deering was told by Wilder to “sort himself out” after being disciplined, dropped from the squad and sent home for poor time-keeping as the U’s had the better of the chances than their local rivals of a 0-0 draw at Wycombe.

In mid-September, after a 2-0 win at Hereford in which Oxford were vastly superior to their opponents, Wilder signed a new three-year contract as U’s manager.

Draws after falling behind at Crewe and Cheltenham signified no lack of spirit and character in the team, and when they then beat league leaders Port Vale 2-1 at the Kassam Stadium on October 2, with Craddock getting both goals, there was a real feeling that United might be able to mount another charge for the play-offs.

But confidence dipped after a 3-2 defeat at Macclesfield when the U’s surrendered a two-goal half-time lead.

And although Northampton were seen off in the next home game, disaster struck in the following away match at Bradford, as United crashed 5-0, with both Jake Wright, back at his old club, and Mark Creighton sent off.

If March 2010 had been an unexpected dip, this October-November spell that followed was to prove a major slump.

Defeat followed defeat, there was a disappointingly early exit in the FA Cup, at Burton.

After five successive losses, and just one goal scored in that time, Wilder was under pressure for the first time since he had become Oxford’s manager.

However, he had brought in striker Steve Maclean, on loan from Plymouth, and the former Rangers, Scunthorpe and Sheffield Wednesday man showed on his debut, against Rotherham, that he was a class act.

By this time, Creighton and Jack Midson, two other players popular with the fans, had gone out, to Wrexham and Southend respectively, and Deering joined Newport County, all on loan with a view to something longer.

In came loanees Paul Wotton, from Southampton, and Ben Futcher, from Bury, to add experience and know-how to what was essentially a young team.

No-one really gave the U’s much hope when they travelled to table-topping Chesterfield on Tuesday November 23, with just 345 fans following them from Oxford.

But a brilliant second-half performance, and goals from Craddock and Maclean, turned a 1-0 deficit at the break into a famous 2-1 victory.

Another 2-1 win over Barnet, at home, followed, and once again United came from behind at the break to do it, James Constable coming off the bench and making all the difference.

The year ended, just as it had begun, with snow and postponements, the games against Lincoln and Shrewsbury falling victim to the frosts and snow.

There had been a very big turnaround of players over 2010, but Wilder believes he had more quality in the team now than at the start of the season.

Of course, the league campaign can go one of three ways The U’s are just as capable of mounting a challenge for promotion as they are of facing a battle to stay up.

Or it could end in mid-table and consolidation in their first season back in the League.

Few, though, will forget what a year 2010 has been, and particularly those glory days of April and May, and one very special day at Wembley.