CHRIS TARDIF has what it takes to make it to the top, according to the fiercest of critics – football fans. The Guernseyman has become a firm favourite with the Oxford United faithful since he joined the club this summer thanks to a string of outstanding performances in August.

He has started every competitive game for the club and has conceded just two goals in their six Coca-Cola Football League Two matches thus far and last night the Sky Sports cameras were to be on him as Oxford travel to local rivals Wycombe Wanderers.

‘It has been fantastic. I am really happy at the moment and that is showing in my football. I am full of confidence and the fans have given me a really good reception,’ said Tardif, who has just bought a house in the area.

‘Things have just clicked into place straight away. Four clean sheets out of six games is a pretty good return and the two goals we have let in so far have come from individual mistakes. As a team, we are looking solid.’

So far this season, Tardif has already won two man-of-the-match votes on the official club website including the biggest landslide victory ever following his performance in the goalless draw away to Leyton Orient.

In the last few minutes of that game he made what has been described as ‘a world-class save’ to deny Andy Scott what seemed a certain goal, although the goalkeeper himself said it was merely part of the job.

‘If it was in the Premier-ship, it might have been shown a few times but I did not think it was anything special. It is what I’m paid to do,’ Tardif said.

Going into last night’s fixture, Oxford were coming off the back of two wins in the space of three days over the bank holiday weekend.

On Saturday they defeated Shrewsbury 2-0 at the Kassam Stadium before snatching a 1-0 away win at Notts County.

‘It was great to win twice over the weekend but that was a grind at Notts County. We scored an early penalty and then for the second half it was really backs to the wall stuff. I think I heard they had 13 corners to our one, so that shows you what the game was like,’ Tardif said.