MALCOLM Shotton made Oxford United's players sit through video replays of their five-goal drubbing at Ipswich rather than relax at home yesterday and declared: "They have to earn their days off."

Players normally have a day off following a midweek match but after Tuesday's 5-2 defeat at Portman Road, Shotton ordered his troops to report back next morning.

However, it was not for extra training, he pointed out, but to analyse what had gone wrong in his first serious setback since he took over as Oxford manager exactly a month ago.

One club official said: "They watched a video of the game and it was certainly X-rated stuff. The younger players weren't allowed in!"

Shotton confirmed: "We all watched it together and later had a team meeting to talk about it.

"I was very disappointed in the standard of goals we let in. There were some very bad goals from our point of view.

"As a team, we let Ipswich play balls from deep, run at us, and there was terrible indecision at times.

"It was the defending of the whole team, rather than singling out individuals, that I was looking at.

"We went there possibly in the wrong frame of mind, slightly over-confident.

"It's a blip for us, that's all. We've got a lot to work on but I believe we'll get a lot out of watching the video and seeing what we have to do."

Shotton denied that he had over-reacted to defeat by an Ipswich team who seem to put five goals past all opponents at home.

"My players may have been expecting to be at home but at the end of the day they've got to earn their days off. Sunday is they day off."

United's position near the bottom of Division 1 worsened marginally last night with relegation rivals Bury leaping three places, but Stoke were defeated at home. Portsmouth, despite three successive wins, are back at the bottom.

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