LIAM Manning says his Oxford United players must apply themselves in a similar vein to professional boxers if they are to successfully fight against relegation from Sky Bet League One.

With no game at the weekend, the U’s slipped to 20th in the third tier and were leapfrogged by Manning’s former club MK Dons.

The Buckinghamshire outfit won 1-0 at home to Morecambe, with former West Bromwich Albion and Birmingham City forward Jonathan Leko scoring the only goal of the game shortly before the hour mark.

Despite dropping a place, there is still a two-point gap separating United from the bottom four.

The other result of note at the bottom of League One saw Exeter City thump 21st-placed Accrington Stanley 5-0, with Josh Key, Sam Nombe, James Scott and Jay Stansfield adding to Demetri Mitchell’s first half strike.

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Manning compared the levels his players must show in training to those required by a boxer before a bout.

He said: “We’re going to need everybody and we’re going to need a bit of everything.

“A bit of physicality, a bit of technical quality, a bit of tactical understanding, and we’re definitely going to need some psychological strengths.

“Each game is going to look different in the last nine but what I know we’re going to need from everybody is to stick together, to fight, to scrap, to do all the core behaviours that wherever you are in the league you have to show.

“When you don’t practise working with intensity every day, winning every day, fighting and scrapping to your maximum in training every day, you can’t then expect a spike in the performance on Saturday.

“It has to be something that you live every day.

“It’s like the boxers – if you don’t prepare properly for a fight, when it comes to it, you’re not ready.

“The difference is we have 50 or 55 fights a season and you have to be ready for them, so we have to practise it every single day.

“I want people to come in and enjoy working, and relish that.

“The staff have done a really good job in drip-feeding messages and the core thing you have to start with is culture.”

The U’s are without a win in their last 11 games, however Manning said that he and his players must have faith they can pull themselves away from the bottom end of League One, as that will also be key to avoiding relegation this season.

He said: “You have to believe it. If you don’t have that belief, you’re in trouble straight away.

“We have to believe it, then back that up with actions ultimately.

“It’s no good us talking about it and then not following it up with actions on the pitch and actions in training.

“Everything’s on actions and if you get them right, you give yourself the chance to getting the outcome you want.”