Oxford United boss Jim Smith said his team got what they deserved as they crashed to a last-minute defeat at Cambridge last night.

Leading at the interval through Gary Twigg's second goal in two games, the U's conceded early in the second half and then in the fourth minute of stoppage time, Lee Boylan spun and fired home.

Both goals in Cambridge's 2-1 victory were the result of poor Oxford defending, and Smith said: "I'm not very happy with either of the goals.

"We got what we deserved. Cambridge had a little bit more desire to win the game.

"There's no good time to concede a goal, but when it's in the last minute like that, it's particularly bad.

"In the dressing room the lads are a bit down, as you can understand.

"It took a long time to lose last year. Here we've lost our first one away, but it could be a blessing in disguise because last season it took us a while to recover when we did eventually get beaten.

"Now we need to bounce back straight away at Burton on Sunday."

United's manager was unhappy with his team's display as much as with the result - their first defeat in the Blue Square Premier.

"I'm disappointed with the performance, it was a scrappy game," he said.

"We allowed them to score two bad goals, from our point of view. We didn't keep the ball, we didn't hold it up well in attack and then we kept giving away free-kicks at the end.

"All through, we gave the ball away too cheaply."

Smith changed his striking duo, Twigg and Rob Duffy, fairly early in the game.

And he said afterwards: "The first striking pair were too lethargic. That's why I brought on Marvin (Robinson) and then Yemi (Odubade), to get more pace to the game. Everything was a battle out there, but that's the way Cambridge play.

"The second striking pair didn't have much joy either, but a lot of that was because the service to them wasn't very good."

The U's boss was angry that Cambridge centre back Mark Albrighton escaped with a telling-off when he kicked out at Marvin Robinson in the second half.

"I can't believe the ref didn't even book him," Smith said. "That could have changed the game if he'd been sent off.

"But I was more disappointed with their goals. It was poor, poor defending."