Oxford United suffered their first defeat in 14 games on Saturday afternoon after losing 3-2 against high-flying Doncaster Rovers.
Oxford fell behind twice in the match but it was two goals in five minutes early in the second half which turned the game. Despite the defeat, U’s boss Karl Robinson was pleased with the performance.
Speaking to the Oxford Mail, Robinson said: “If you looked at our last few performances, you could pick more holes than there were today against one of the best teams in the league.
“It was five minutes of madness at the beginning of the second half.
“It’s frustrating, I wouldn’t say they were breakaway goals. I thought we had enough bodies back.”
Oxford enjoyed large spells of control before Jon Taylor opened the scoring. Although Sam Long levelled before the break, the two goals early in the second finished the game off.
However, Robinson felt his side should have been awarded a free kick in the build-up to Donny’s second goal. The U’s boss also believed Oxford should have been awarded a penalty with the U’s 3-2 down.
He added: “It’s incredible that’s not given. He (the referee) asked me if he missed it – I said the fact you’ve asked me shows you know you have.
“But we know why we’ve lost – it’s because we’ve switched off for the first five minutes of the second half.
“Arguably we’ve played 92 minutes really well, but for five minutes we were a little bit off it.”
Meanwhile, Doncaster boss Darren Moore was well aware of the challenge his side were up against but admitted they had been working on finishing in training.
Speaking after the game, he said: “I was really pleased and ultimately we took the chances when they did come and in that type of game you have to take them. We know the quality that Oxford have.
“It’s part of things that we have been working on in training. We did some finishing again this week and it has paid off. When the chances have come, we’ve got people at the front end of the pitch who’ve taken them well.
“All three of them were spot-on finishes. In a high-level match, we had to take them and we got them.”
