CENTRAL defender Jake Wright says Oxford United must use their terrific Carling Cup performance at West Ham as a springboard to start registering wins in League Two.

The team’s impressive showing in a 1-0 defeat against the Premier League outfit can only give them confidence.

But they want to turn their fine football into points, starting with Accrington Stanley’s visit to the Kassam Stadium on Saturday.

“We played some nice football and we’ve got to take that forward into the weekend,” said Wright, who was voted United’s man-of-the-match by readers of oxfordmail.co.uk.

“We kept our discipline and shape, and when we attacked we held onto the ball well – I thought that we were really professional for a young team.

“West Ham had some players with a lot of experience, so I thought we did ourselves proud.

“The lads were gutted about the late goal though – it just shows we’ve got to concentrate for the full game, although maybe our legs were a bit tired.”

U’s boss Chris Wilder also stressed the importance of converting good performances into League Two wins.

“We can be very proud of our achievements on Tuesday,” he said.

“We wanted to make it awkward for the opposition, and ask questions of them and we did both.

“I suppose if we learned one thing it was that in the last 30 seconds we should be booting the ball into the corner, rather than go and try to win at a Premier League club.

“But I can’t fault them for that sort of attitude, we just got punished right at the death.

“We’ve got to make sure winning is a massive part of what we do – and the players know how important I regard that.

“We’ve got to use these real good performances now and turn them into points. It’s not a case of kick-starting it, because I don’t think it’s like that, we’ve just got to make sure we take the positives out of this.

“Saturday’s a massive game and we know it won’t be easy.

“Accrington will pose the same sort of barrier that we posed to West Ham, but we have to be patient, and move the ball, and we have to get our league season up and running – and that’s what I’ve told the players.”