Oxford United's assistant manager Mickey Lewis said after Saturday's defeat at Lewes he had considerable sympathy for boss Darren Patterson because he knows how hard he works.

"I do feel for Darren big-time because no-one works as hard as he does, not just on the training field but in the whole aspects of the club.

"To be honest, as I'm sure some of the players will say, they have let us and Darren down today."

Lewis found it hard to understand how the U's couldn't hold on after getting into a winning position.

"We've gone a goal up in the second half - a good goal by Joe (Burnell) - and you've just got to see the game through and end up winning it 1-0.

"Lewes's two goals were pretty poor from our point of view. The first has come a long way . . . we've just got to go and head it. There was no challenge."

The 2-1 defeat was a painful reminder to supporters of the dark days of last season, when the U's lost at Histon, then at Droylsden, then at Tonbridge Angels, and also at Northwich.

"It's something we've got to get out of the habit of, losing to these types of teams - without being disrespectful to them. But the last couple of years, we've struggled against these types of teams.

"We should have been full of confidence after last Tuesday. No game's easy, we know that, but sometimes you just have to dig in and battle. We haven't played well today but you should still come away with a result."

united's passing in the first half wasn't very good. Then in the second half, when they improved, their defence went missing.

"We didn't get on the ball in fullback areas, or in wide areas," Lewis agreed.

"Games in this league are sometimes very tight, and in the first half it's not always easy to get on the ball. But as the game goes on, you get more opportunity. But we didn't pass it as we did the other night."

Lewes manager Kevin Keehan said: "There's no doubt Oxford are the biggest team in this league, in terms of their support. They probably had more (fans) here than we had.

"We now feel that, if we can beat Oxford United we can beat anyone so it's a massive confidence boost for us."