New players 'must get used to expectation'

7:04pm Thursday 28th August 2008

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Goalkeeper Billy Turley says there is no need to panic, Oxford United will be all right when they get key players back and match sharp.

"We've got a lot of new players in and it takes time to settle," he said.

"It's a new scenario as well for the new players, they're at a club where they're expected to win every game.

"I think it will maybe take three or four weeks to acclimatise to that. It's different to where you're at teams whose target is mid-table.

"When you've got five or six new players in a team - and we've had a couple of bad injuries as well - they need time to gel.

"Obviously, Jamie Guy did fantastic pre-season, it was a major blow for him to pull his hamstring.

"Nobody should be panicking. Once we get the big players back, we'll be all right."

You can't help but feel, as the words came out of his mouth about the "big players", that Elvis was modestly referring to himself!

Turley is now back in full training after his shoulder op, and might not be too far away from returning.

Darren Patterson says there's little more the management can do, it's now up to the players to produce.

"We can't work any harder because it's impossible for us to do that," he said.

"Off the pitch, we're looking at everything we do, analysing what we're doing, looking at systems, looking at players, we're looking at any which way we can to help our players improve out on the pitch."

ALEX Fisher took a knock in a practice game against Aldershot on Tuesday and is now a doubt for tomorrow's game at Ebbsfleet.

The idea of the friendly, at Milton, was to give younger players a run-out who hadn't featured much.

Luke Foster also played after missing the last Blue Square Premier match through suspension. The Shots won 1-0.

But Joe Burnell stands a good chance of returning to the midfield after stepping up his training following an ankle sprain.