OXFORD City’s caretaker-manager Mark Jones is hopeful his side can shrug off recent frustrations when they travel to Welling United tomorrow.

A fortnight has passed since City were held to a 3-3 draw at Concord Rangers, with last Saturday’s scheduled fixture at home to Bath City postponed due to a frozen pitch.

After this weekend, City will not play in Vanarama National League South again until February 11 and Jones believes it is vital they make the most of the opportunity to add to their points tally.

“We don’t want to lose the game and go into that break on a downer,” he said.

“It’s an important one for us. Of our last two games we’ve lost one and drawn one and we want to taste victory again.”

Jones added: “We were all disappointed that the game was off last week.

“When you spend the week preparing for a game it’s disappointing to not be able to play.

“For the players, it’s frustrating to have to train at that intensity for two weeks with no reward.

“The boys are hungry to get back out there and playing again.”

Welling’s game last weekend also fell victim to the weather.

However, their previous form is formidable, with seven wins from eight games belying their lowly 17th position in the league table.

“They’ve been in good form lately,” Jones acknowledged.

“They were in the National League last year and there are some big names there.

“At the start of the season you wouldn’t have had Welling down as a side who would struggle at the bottom of the table.

“They’ve perhaps shown lately that they’re better than their league position suggests.”

With illness casting doubt over the fitness of Godfrey Poku, Jones could be left with a selection problem at full-back.

And he admitted the defensive area has concerned him recently.

Jones said: “We need to focus on improving our goals against column.

“It was disappointing to concede three times at Concord Rangers and ultimately it cost us points.

“We want to be a constant threat going forward.

“But we need to balance that against maintaining a strong defence.

“We’ve maybe not always got that balance right at times.”

TOMORROW’S SQUAD

Oxford City (v Welling Utd, away): from Belford, Grant, Poku, Ashby, Henderson, Davies, Fleet, Ngathe, Winters, MacAuley, Fondop, Louis, Ngamvoulou, Peake-Pijnen, Niate.