'Twelve months on, Oxford's prize remains the same'

And then there were eight. A year ago it looked like Oxford United were going nowhere in League One, but their final eight games of the season produced five wins and two draws and helped them sneak into the play-offs.

And here we are, in what feels like a matter of moments later and there are just eight games left in the Championship season. And the prize to play for is exactly the same as this time last year – the right to operate in the second tier of English football.

This business end of the season can mess with your head. Everything is exaggerated, but it is particularly easy to catastrophise any result – yours or your rival's.

Last season United took just a point from their final two home games and fell out of the play-off places. The sky was falling in. Except it turned out it wasn't.

The three matches before this international break sums the current situation up. Quiet satisfaction after a draw at Norwich. Doom and gloom after a lead was thrown away in the defeat at Hull, and then belief restored following the win over Watford. It's how we roll. It is the Oxford rollercoaster - the previous 12 months in microcosm.

Oxford started the season so well, but faded as the leaves started to fall. They changed their manager and Gary Rowett made a stunning start, but that fizzled out.

If Oxford did succumb to relegation, they would go back to League One so much more credible a club than they were a year ago, but the U's ownership, with their actions, have made it clear just how much staying up means to them. For the team, for the club, for the new stadium project, it feels so valuable.

If United are to achieve their goal of Championship survival, cool heads will be the order of the day. Rowett has not had it all his own way in recent weeks, but if anyone can strip out the emotion of the run-in in this division it is "Mr Championship Manager" himself.

From here, Oxford need to average a point a game, maybe less. They have a tricky-looking fixture list to negotiate, but as the final day of last season proved, even the top teams in a division can mess things up as the finish line gets closer.

Fans may be plotting where the required points will come from, but I guarantee Oxford will get something from a game or two they are given no hope in, but the reverse is also true.

Supporters at the Watford game - yet another sell-out - produced the sort of positive atmosphere that fuelled last season's play-off success, and why not? As I said the same prize is at stake and, however hard, achieving it is more likely than promotion looked at the end of March 2024.

With players coming back from injury and with improved potency in their attacks in recent games, there is reason for optimism at the Kassam Stadium.

Of course, life could be made easier if teams beneath them in the Championship table run into trouble, but Oxford are four points clear of the drop zone. It is in their hands - and that is a situation they would have gladly accepted before a ball was kicked.