At the business end of the season, that familiar phrase “six-pointer” comes out – and tomorrow’s clash with fourth-placed Rotherham is another of those.

The term refers to what a win is effectively worth when you are playing one of your rivals at the top or the bottom of the table.

And Oxford, in ninth and just four points off the play-off positions, know that denying other top teams points can be almost as important as picking them up yourself.

After last Saturday’s 0-0 draw at Gillingham – who climbed back to sixth by beating Rotherham 3-1 on Tuesday – U’s boss Chris Wilder stressed the fact.

“It is important that, if we can’t win, we make sure that the opposition, if it’s a team that’s in and around us, don’t pick up the three points.

“That was the disappointing thing at Southend.

“But I think we’ve come back, given the answer and now it’s important that we’ve done this, that this is the standard we’ve set for the rest of the season when we go away.

“If we’re going to be successful this year, against teams in and around us, we’ve got to make sure we get something from the game.”

Rotherham, a club Wilder played for between 1992 and 1996, finished fifth in League Two last season, but just missed out on promotion in 2009-10, losing 3-2 to Dagenham in the play-off final at Wembley.

“To all neutrals, it was the result nobody expected,” said Wilder.

“No disrespect to Dagenham & Redbridge, but I imagine a lot of people put Rotherham down as favourites.

“They’re a big club and they’re pushing to get into the automatic spots, and you can see teams are hitting form at the top of the table.”

After tomorrow, Oxford United will have played 30 games, and it’s from that point on that the end of the season really does seem close.

“It’s a big game for both of us to keep in touch,” added United’s manager.

“We’re in a decent position and I should imagine, from Rotherham’s point of view, it’s a game they’ve got to come and win really.

“Even though people say there’s a big batch of games to come, nobody wants a gap to grow. So I imagine a draw doesn’t really suit either of us.”

United lost 2-1 to the Millers at the Don Valley Stadium in November, in what was Steve MacLean’s first game for the club.

“They’ve got good players all over,” said United’s manager, “exp-erience from the two or three years that they have tasted success and won games in this league on a regular basis.

“They’ve got good footballers in midfield like the boy Mark Randall, who was at Arsenal and close to Arsenal’s first team.

“And up front, they’ve got Adam Le Fondre, who’s sought-after, and Ian Moore, the manager’s son, who’s had a really good career at Tranmere and the clubs he’s played for, and Ryan Taylor, a player I know a lot about from when I was living in Sheffield.”