OXFORD City boss Mark Jones is adamant his team will turn the corner after an inconsistent start to their Vanarama National League South campaign.

City picked up just one point out of a possible six over the Bank Holiday weekend.

They were pegged back at home to Welling last Saturday by a late penalty, before losing 3-2 at Chippenham Town on Monday.

Jones admits he is frustrated, but insists his side are moving in the right direction.

“It’s fine margins at the moment,” he said. “We played quite well against Welling for long periods and should have won that game.

“Then we scored two good goals at Chippenham but shot ourselves in the foot by conceding some poor goals.

“It’s very frustrating, because we are doing many good things, but sometimes we’ve perhaps been guilty of not showing enough desire as a team to defend properly.

“We could have very easily got four points out of those two games, but at the end of the day we didn’t manage to win either of them.”

He added: “Scoring hasn’t been a problem. We scored two good goals on Monday, and scoring twice away from home would usually be good enough to get at least a point.”

Braintree were relegated from the National Premier last season, and have made a good start.

And Jones believes their open style of play will stand City in good stead.

“They are a good footballing side, and I think that will benefit us,” he said. “It will be a decent, open game, and I hope that will play in our favour.

“At the moment, our confidence is OK. We’re still very much together, and I do believe we are close to being an effective side.”

Freddie Grant serves the last match of a three-game ban, while Mo Fofana (hamstring) is still ruled out.

Meanwhile, City have appealed against Lee Henderson’s red card against Welling.

He is named in an unchanged squad while they await a decision from the Football Association.

Jones was full of praise for new signing Rob Sinclair, who joined from Forest Green Rovers last week.

He said: “Rob has done really well.

“We could see straight away what a good player he is. The more games he gets under his belt over the next couple of weeks, the fitter and stronger he will become.

“He will be an important player over the coming months.”

TOMORROW’S SQUAD

Oxford City (v Braintree Tn, home): Stevens, Poku, Jones, Henderson, Oastler, McEachran, Fleet, Paterson, Sinclair, Hirst, Peace, Bennett, Navarro, Ngathe, Forde.