DEREK Fazackerley was heartened by Oxford United’s display against Plymouth Argyle, but there are still plenty of frustrations for the caretaker manager.

Sonny Bradley’s first-half header earned the visitors a 1-0 win at the Kassam Stadium and inflicted a third-straight home loss on the U’s.

Fazacekerley had been critical of his side in recent defeats to Bristol Rovers and Rotherham United.

While the 66-year-old was satisfied with an improved display, he was left bemoaning a lack of cutting edge.

Fazackerley said: “I was pleased with the performance, there’s no doubt about that, but unfortunately it was not good enough to get a result.

“And if I’m critical in any way shape or form, it would just be around the final third of the field – the quality of our crosses, our final ball or not being quite ruthless enough.

“But I think on most days the performance would have been more than enough to certainly get a point and in most cases probably three.”

A particular cause for frustration were United’s set-pieces, with more than half of their ten corners caught by goalkeeper Remi Matthews.

Fazackerley said: “We had planned to take a shorter corner and then get the second ball in, but unfortunately in the heat of the moment these things get forgotten sometimes.

“There are young players out there, I understand that, and I’m not too critical of it, but it is obviously something we did need to deal with.

“Set plays can play a huge part, it won them the game with a corner and probably cost us because we had five or six corners which went straight into the goalkeeper’s hands.”

Top-scorer Wes Thomas was left out, with Gino van Kessel preferred on the bench, while Agon Mehmeti missed out due to a groin problem.

But the sight of Joe Rothwell, back after a hamstring problem, hobbling off after 34 minutes was another cause for concern.

Fazackerley said: “It was a big blow, because he started very well.

“He was running with the ball well and creating problems for them which he has the ability to do.

“But unfortunately, again he has a slight problem with his hamstring and we don’t want to take risks with it and he had to come off.”