Whing urges Oxford United to keep it simple (From Oxford Mail)

Whing urges Oxford United to keep it simple

9:50am Monday 19th November 2012 in Oxford Utd By David Pritchard, Chief Sports Reporter covering Oxford United. Follow us on twitter: @oxfordmailoufc. Call me on 01865 425458

ANDY Whing believes Oxford United’s players need to lower their sights and not be distracted by the npower League Two table, writes DAVID PRITCHARD.

After briefly topping the pile in August, the U’s have spent the last two months in the bottom half.

Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Chesterfield left them in 18th place, trailing the play-off positions by eight points.

Whing thinks the squad have been too concerned with the gap to the top seven and must focus only on the next game – at Barnet tomorrow night.

He said: “We need to look ahead to Tuesday’s game and try to win that, not look too far ahead – maybe we’ve been caught up by thinking ‘we’re only so many points away from the top seven’.

“We have to go one game at a time to string performances together and not lose games.”

And the midfielder highlighted the last three games as an example of where they have dropped four precious points.

He said: “We shouldn’t have lost the Dagenham game, we should have won against Torquay and we should have got a point at Chesterfield.

“We need to pick up the points where we should do and win when we play well.”

Whing admitted the players were devastated to lose in the 91st-minute on Saturday.

Morale has taken a hit, but the 28-year-old knows they are the only ones who can turn it around.

He said: “It’s a kick in the teeth. We know it’s not good enough at the minute. I know we keep saying things are going against us, but we have to take our chances.

“We have to forget what anyone else is saying about us, we have to dig in as a team.

“Obviously confidence is low and that’s a big factor in football, but we need to help each other out really.”