Ross Jenkins has said that his Oxford City side can’t take their foot off the pedal ahead of the Hoops’ trip to an invigorated Oldham Athletic on Saturday.

City will go into the weekend on the back of an impressive seven-game unbeaten run in the Vanarama National League after a mid-week comeback against Eastleigh earned the team a 2-2 draw.

However, the gaffer isn’t getting carried away and says that the team have to carry on putting in some determined performances.

“There’s a lot of talk and noise about budgets in the league and who’s on what [money wise], and yes we’re aware we aren’t the biggest club.” Jenkins told www.oxfordcityfc.co.uk.

“We know we have the smallest budget in the league and all the sort of stuff that comes with it but as soon as the whistle goes, it’s eleven vs eleven and that’s the attitude and mentality that we have.

“If we’re not going to win the game we make sure that we definitely don’t lose the game. We are going to lose games at some point, it’s going to happen, it’s natural.

“Yes, we’ve got a little run going but that could end on Saturday if we take our foot off the pedal.

We’re trying to be as resilient, dogged, compact and as hard to best as possible. However, there are teams in the league who have sheer quality and it’s going to happen, teams are going to score goals and we’re not the finished product.

“We have to respect that the league is a very strong league and I think until you’re actually in it and playing you sort of take it for granted and under estimate it.”

Saturday’s trip to Greater Manchester won’t be easy though. Oldham look like a team on the up after a 2-0 victory over York City proved to be the ideal reaction to the departure of Ex-Manager David Unsworth.

Furthermore, the Latics were the second favourites for the league title in the summer and will be looking to put their stuttering start behind them with back-to-back victories.

“It always happens [when there’s a managerial change] you always get a reaction.” Jenkins continued.

“Their [Oldham] task is to continue it, our task is to stop it and try to be as dogged and as hard to beat as possible going there.

“We appreciate it’s a difficult place to go to with their fans and the atmosphere and they will feel like they have a twelfth player at times. But they’re things we’re getting used to and learning about and adapting to.

“But we’ve got enough quality on the pitch to affect them as well. So, as much as we have to pay attention to them and their key players, we’ve got to have the belief in our players too and I back the players that we’ve got.

“If we have injured boys or players that haven’t played for a while, I’ve got utter belief in these boys to put a performance in and show that the level isn’t too far away from where they’ve just come from.

“You’ve got to earn the right. We’re not in a bad place, we’ve got to keep on going and keep improving each game.

“The Eastleigh game was a reminder that, yes we’ve done okay but we’re nowhere near where we need to be and we need to be much better on Saturday.”