How right Oxford United were to sack Darren Patterson, and how pleasing it was to read Kelvin Thomas’s positive comments about Darren’s character.

Whatever the contributing causes, Darren Patterson has failed as the Oxford manager, and on that professional basis alone, deserved to be dismissed.

If Oxford are to ever return to league status, then Thomas’s comment that “we feel a change of manager and a change of direction is needed at this time”, is timely and right.

For the sake of the club and its supporters, I hope the directors quickly appoint an appropriately qualified successor, and do not leave the management of the team to the ‘old guard’, who must also share some responsibility in putting the club in the position they are currently in.

I hope all fans wish Darren Patterson well for the future.

RAY JAMES, Williamson Way, Oxford