OXFORD BOSS UNHAPPY

It's fair to say that both during the game and following full time the Oxford players, staff, fans and even the TNT broadcasting team all felt that Oxford were hard done to by the referee today. Personally I don't but the O's boss Matt Bloomfield has had his say on the game post match. He was happy with how his team played but it's clear to see that he strongly disagreed with the decision to call for a foul when their main man Will Lankshear tried ripping Luke O'Nien's shirt off to run through on goal. He also disagreed with the penalty decision too and feels like nothing went their way today and hasn't for some time now...

IMPROVEMENT

"We learned a lot on Tuesday as I said before the game and I was really proud and pleased with the performance today. Obviously we're disappointed not to go further in the competition but that was the level of performance we need to attain."

REFEREEING

"It's a recurring theme for me. The last 2 weeks we're not getting any decisions, this football club has not had a penalty in several years, I don't know how long it is, its been a long time. For me, one minute the assistant referees don't get involved in decisions, next one they're giving fouls against my team. Loads of borderline decisions and none of them are going our way."

An interesting question from the TNT reporter then followed to continue to spin the narrative that the referee was heavily anti-Oxford. He said:

"Will Lankshear in particular was magnificent wasn't he? Lead the line superbly and it felt like he got very little change out of the referee?"

To which Matt Bloomfield responded:

"Exactly right. He was fantastic, absolutely brilliant. His work rate, his desire, he was really disappointed to get sent off at Coventry and he's shown a real hunger and desire today. We know he can finish, we've got to create him more clear cut chances because he's going to be a top player one day but he get anything to do today."

KEY DECISIONS

"Will goes through one on one and gets a foul given against him when they're just both running. And the penalty you can see different angles, one suggests it's given before he's even hit the deck. We're just really frustrated but I'm really proud of my team. We have to focus on ourselves and make sure we create more chances to win games."

FOCUS TURNS BACK TO THE LEAGUE

"We've shown on several occasions since we've been in the building that we're a good team but there's been a couple of occasions where we've let ourselves down. we have to be more consistent, we have to show that same fight and desire and energy like we did today and if we do that then we can come away and say we're pleased with the performance on a more regular basis. You can't just expect to win games unless you perform properly. We performed properly today, we're disappointed to go out the competition but now the focus goes back to Middlesbrough next Saturday. Yeah I wanted to win today. I wanted to have a distraction, I wanted to get through. Our boys showed that, fantastic backing from the supporters as well but now we're out we concentrate on the league situation."