Carlisle wrap - Carlisle United 0 Oxford United 2

This is like a big three-dart checkout. Hartlepool was the first throw; it just needed to be as big as possible. The second throw, at Carlisle, needed something similar but also confirmed what was needed for the third and final throw. Each one step closer, each ratcheting up the pressure a little more.

And this is it, there is almost no margin for error; three points at home to Wycombe and the previous 67.5 hours of league football this year will have all been worthwhile, anything less and, well…

We haven’t beaten Carlisle in Cumbria for 20 years when Matt Elliot smashed that goal in. With that kind of record, fans might have been forgiven for forgoing the 500+ mile round trip in favour of chewing their nails in front of the radio. Instead, more than 2,200 made the trip north, a demonstration of unflinching support and belief; the club is a bit like that nowadays.

That last win at Carlisle was part of a run that took us to promotion, an omen that the gods are smiling on us? The momentum is definitely with us. Wycombe’s season is all played out, their form is reassuringly abject. There’s an idea that the debatable local rivalry will fuel their desire but I’m not so sure that will transfer to the players who will be worrying about contracts and the beach. We’ve been nursing players through games and worrying about the future, but on Saturday we can leave everything on the pitch and pick up the pieces over the summer.

But, I’m always reminded of what Tony Adams said before the 1998 World Cup. The consensus view was that England were certain to reach the quarter-final with semi-finals or final place a possibility.

Adams, however, stressed that even meeting the minimum expectation required effort and application, relying on theoretical superiority is not enough.

We need to be absolutely focussed on the task at hand, to do all the right things, everything we’ve been doing all season, just one more time. Thankfully, we have big-game experience invested in this squad. Our runs in the FA Cup and Johnstone’s Paint Trophy have battered us this year but, ironically, the very thing that has made this more uncomfortable than we’d have wanted, could be the very thing that sees us over the line.

The battle is joined. See you Saturday.