MALCOLM Shotton roared his disapproval after the lions of Millwall found Oxford United's pussycat defenders easy meat at the Manor on Saturday.

"Three of our back four were absolute rubbish," said United's manager. "Rob Folland was the one exception. The lads have been pointing fingers at each other in the dressing room - and rightly so.

"In the first half, Millwall had one shot and scored - though it was a tremendous strike, I agree - but we were getting stronger all the time.

"Yet as the second half went on, our back four disintegrated."

Shotton said after United's 3-1 home defeat that he finds it frustrating that his players cannot string two successive performances together.

"I'm totally hacked off with our inconsistency," he said. "We beat Bristol City 3-0 one week, the confidence comes back and everyone's buzzing. Then the next match we defend like that. "We win one then lose one, play well one week, then crap the next."

Millwall's 3-1 victory was the U's third defeat in six home league games and made it a happy first return to the Manor for former United centre forward Paul Moody, who gave an impressive display.

"Our boys played some good stuff out there today," said Moody, who was given a big ovation by the fans before kick-off.

"It's the first time we've really created a few chances.

"The fans were excellent to me, just as they were when I was here," he said.

Many of the crowd's biggest cheers were reserved for news of Sweden's goals as they defeated Poland 2-0 to usher England through the back door to the Euro 2000 qualifying play-offs.

"I always thought we would win because Sweden are a much better team than Poland," said United's Swedish goalkeeper Paul Lundin. "But I'm more concerned about Oxford United losing. I didn't care so much about the Swedish result, because we had qualified for the finals anyway.

"Today we had too many long balls to Steve Anthrobus and lost the movement we needed.

"The first goal was partly my fault because it went in at the near post, but it was a very hard strike. I got my fingertips to it, but it was hit so well it beat me."

Millwall's joint manager Keith Stevens was relieved that his gamble of playing the game had paid off.

With three players called up for international duty, he could have postponed the fixture until later in the season. But he was worried his team, who had played fewer league games than anyone else in the division, would fall even further behind.

"I made a bit of a bold decision to say we would play the game," he admitted. "If we hadn't got a result, my head might have been on the block."

So inconsistent are United at present that Shotton now fully expects the team to follow up Saturday's defeat by beating first division Tranmere in tomorrow night's Worthington Cup fourth round tie.

"We'll probably win there now because that's the way we are," he said.

Story date: Monday 11 October

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.