Andy Melville believes that Oxford United’s performance at Morecambe on Saturday has proved there is more to their game than just playing attractive football.

The U’s were forced to really dig in to earn a point and end their poor run of five straight defeats.

And first-team coach Melville says that the character the U’s showed will have proved a few people wrong.

“I think it’s been levelled at us a little bit that we get out-fought away from home, but we certainly didn’t at Morecambe,” he said.

“We wanted to get back to playing no-risk football.

“We took no chances in defence and then tried to get the ball down and play when we had the chance in other areas of the pitch.

“We won a lot of battles which we haven’t done over the last three or four weeks and I think that shows that we are going in the right direction.”

Melville, a centre half himself with 65 Welsh caps to his name, said he was impressed by the performances of United’s defence, two of whom have not been regulars this season.

“I thought the back four – well back five – were superb,” he added.

“They got bodies in the way, got blocks in, stopped crosses and limited their forwards to not many chances.

“They did their job well and were very strong.”

The clean sheet was United’s first for ten matches, another big step in the right direction.

“Early in the season that is what we were doing,” Melville said. “We were solid and keeping clean sheets.

“We always tell the players that if they do their jobs, there won’t be chances against us and it was great to see that return – and that’s not just the defenders, but everyone”

United now have a home match against Northampton on Saturday which will be seen as a great opportunity to get back to winning ways.

It is again likely to attract a big crowd, with the visitors set to turn out in force for what will be manager Ady Boothroyd’s first match in charge of the Cobblers.

A LIMITED number of tickets for Oxford United’s game at AFC Wimbledon on Boxing Day (12.15pm kick-off) go on open sale today from 9.30am.