Oxford United’s position in the table is now a concern for head coach Michael Appleton, who has acknow-ledged it is taking longer than expected to improve results.

A 2-0 defeat at Luton Town on Saturday saw the U’s slip back into the bottom two.

With ten games of the Sky Bet League Two season gone, they have won just once, and Appleton admits by this stage the table should be a wake-up call.

He said: “Of course there’s concern, you don’t want to be where you are after ten games of football.

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“At the end of the day after ten games it is an indication of how the first part of the season has gone.

“It’s the first quarter of the season and it’s not been good enough, simple as that.

“Everyone has to stand up and be counted.

“I’m sure that will be the case, I don’t see the players shying away from it.

“Let’s just hope we make better decisions in the final third and it might turn for us.”

The U’s boss thinks the side’s position in the relegation zone should provoke a response from the players, or warned their days at the club would be numbered.

He said: “Reality has got to bite at some point and if it doesn’t they’ll end up out of the team and out of the club totally.”

Appleton’s squad remains a work in progress, but even though the 38-year-old expected it to be a challenge, he did not foresee such a prolonged struggle.

“I didn’t think it would be as long as it’s taken,” he said.

“Saying that I can’t grumble with a lot of the performances, I can just grumble at a lot of the results.

“I’ve got to keep believing that somewhere along the line this team are capable of winning ten games on the bounce.

“I’ve got to keep believing that and keep making sure the message keeps getting over to the players that we’re more than capable of doing that.

“I think they do, but ultimately we’ve gone into a season where in the first ten games we’ve scored the first goal twice.

“If that ratio doesn’t get any better then we’re not going to win games of football.”

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