Oxford United’s assistant manager Mickey Lewis has urged the fans not to lose hope of reaching the play-offs, and says Saturday’s 3-3 draw at Forest Green might yet prove a useful point.

The U’s are six points off the play-off places and their games appear to be running out.

Their best hopes of finishing in the top five would appear to be by catching Stevenage Borough, who are the Blue Square Premier’s form team, on a sensational 19-match unbeaten run.

Yet Lewis believes Graham Westley’s team, who are fourth – and must play Oxford United at Broadhall Way on March 28 – have some testing games coming up.

“With ten games left, we know we’ve got to win about eight of those games – that hasn’t changed from the way it was Saturday morning,” said Lewis after the six-goal thriller at the New Lawn.

“Who knows? Perhaps this point we’ve got might be a good point at the end of the season.

“People say Forest Green are in a false position and I do believe that. They are very good going forward. For any team going there, especially with them fighting for their lives, it’s going to be a tough game.

“Come two weeks’ time, some of those teams that have been doing well, like Stevenage . . . perhaps they’re going to drop some points. They’ve got some tough games coming up.

“All we can do is look after ourselves really. If we win eight, we’ll have every chance and this might be a good draw in the end.

“OK, we were disappointed after Saturday because we were 2-0 up and 3-2 up, and we didn’t think it was a free-kick when they got their equalising goal. But let’s put it into perspective.

“We haven’t had a great away record before and recently that has turned around.

“We win at Crawley, draw at Cambridge, win at Eastbourne and get a draw at Forest Green – they’re good results.

“It was just the manner of it last Saturday because we got ahead. Scoring three goals away from home should be enough to win. Had it been a 0-0 perhaps you wouldn’t have been as disappointed as a 3-3.

“We were two up and didn’t make the right decisions defensively for a minute or two. Forest Green’s first goal was a catalogue of errors really.

“You want to play football, which we didn’t do enough of on Saturday, but sometimes when you go two goals up, you’ve just got to stick it in the opposition half. And then we got ourselves 3-2 up with a great free-kick from Adam Murray.

“But we shouldn’t get too despondent. I’ve seen these situations change around in the past.”

Stevenage will be preoccupied with the FA Carlsberg Trophy semi-finals over the next 11 days, with their two-legged semi-finals against Ebbsfleet United taking place over the next two Saturdays.

They then face a hectic schedule of difficult league games . . . Histon away, Oxford at home, York away, Kidderminster away, Cambridge at home, Ebbsfleet at home, Crawley away and Torquay at home before the regular season’s final fortnight.

The U’s also have testing games, like their trip to Kettering on Thursday week, but if they can maintain the pressure on those above by winning, there might yet be some twists and turns before the leading positions are finally decided on April 26.

There’s also the danger of one or more of the clubs behind Oxford, who have games in hand, also going on a run which enables them to make the play-offs.

Cambridge, Histon, Torquay, Wrexham, Kettering and Crawley are all in action tonight.