NO one can feel safe from the axe as Colin Todd attempts to come up with a winning formula for next Saturday's trip to Oxford. The Wanderers boss sat his players down on Monday morning and repeated everything he'd said immediately after the defeat at Sunderland.

He didn't take back a single word - commitment, passion, determination, workrate and pride featuring prominently in the debriefing.

He also repeated his pledge to make changes, leaving his under-achievers under no illusions.

After seeing his team slip from automatic promotion favourites to play-off probables, the manager has run out of patience. He's played the loyalty card long enough and decided, with nine games to go, that enough is enough. "I made it clear that I'd given them every opportunity to put things right over the last six games," Todd said sternly, "and I warned them that I had to make changes to get a result at Oxford.

"Everybody will benefit, if we can get a win next Saturday - not just the 11 who are picked - just as everyone has suffered over the last month or so.

"I had faith in the players who went 15 games without losing and I've stuck with them during the recent spell of indifferent results. They've had their chances but they have let themselves down and they've let each other down.

"The most important thing for us now is that the squad of players gets into that second spot. "There will be changes at Oxford - I made that clear to them on Monday. It's going to be a battle down there and I will pick the team with that in mind. There will be disappointments but all that matters now is that we get the results we need."

Deadline day signings Steve Banks and Jamie Fullarton will give Todd some scope for a shake-up but the manager is also prepared to use the resources already at his disposal.

That puts the likes of Gudni Bergsson, Andy Todd and Jimmy Phillips back in the defensive frame while Eidur Gudjohnsen, Bo Hansen and Ricardo Gardner will come into the reckoning for the forward positions, although the young Jamaican is only due to return from international duty on Friday and may not be considered fresh enough. Bergsson, Todd and Phillips are familiar faces, who have been tried before but Todd remains convinced he has a talented enough squad of players; it's just a case of finding the right blend to get a result that would provide an injection of confidence, in which they are so lacking at the moment.

It looked at one stage of deadline day that Banks - a 'steal' at £50,000 - might be the only new arrival but Todd finally ended his search for a combative midfielder when he persuaded Crystal Palace to let him borrow Fullarton, with just 15 minutes to spare.

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