PULL up the drawbridge and man the ramparts, it’s time to make the Kassam Stadium a fortress.

That’s the aim for Oxford United, starting against Bury tomorrow afternoon.

Of all the areas manager Chris Wilder is looking to improve upon from last season, the most obvious is form at home.

While the U’s were more successful on the road than all four sides who contested the play-offs, their challenge was undone by leaking too many points in front of their own fans.

Just nine wins from 23 league fixtures meant the Kassam was a happy hunting ground for several of their rivals.

Wilder is well aware of the need to avoid a repeat in this campaign.

“We weren’t consistent enough at home and didn’t pick up enough points,” he said.

“I think Burton and Northampton would say they got into the play-offs purely on their home form.

“I think we’re a decent away side, we can tactically set up to be good on the road because we have players who can hurt teams on the counter-attack.

“I thought our away record last year was pretty sound.

“But you always want as a club to have a strong home record because that’s where the majority of your supporters see you.

“You want to make sure that you’re right at home and win games consistently.”

Last season’s top three lost 20 home games between them, so setbacks will happen, but the key for Wilder is making sure teams have to do something special to leave with the points.

“They will have to walk out of the door thinking ‘we’ve had to really work unbelievably hard and been unbelievably fortunate to win there’,” the United boss said.

“That was something we spoke about, even in the two home friendlies.

“Any team that comes here in any game will have to have played well, worked extremely hard and had the bounce of the ball.

“We don’t want to be giving cheap points away – it’s important that message is sent out from the players right from the start.”