SEAN Clare believes Oxford United's defensive unit showed their strength with a clean sheet against Queens Park Rangers.

The 1-0 victory at the Kassam Stadium came without Rob Dickie, who looks set to leave the club this week.

QPR are seen as the centre back's most likely destination, for a seven-figure fee, in a departure which has been expected from the moment the U’s failed to win the Sky Bet League One play-off final seven weeks ago.

In Dickie’s absence, United partnered Rob Atkinson in the heart of defence with Elliott Moore.

The home side did a decent job overall of limiting the goalscoring opportunities created by the Sky Bet Championship visitors.

IN PICTURES: Gallery from Oxford United's win over QPR

Right back Clare also started the game for what is a new-look back four.

But the summer signing from Hearts believes there is quality in the defensive unit, whoever is called upon to start.

He said: “I think we’ve done a lot of work, whether in those back fours or in training.

“We all know our roles, so it should be almost seamless, whether I’m playing, Rob (Atkinson)’s playing or whoever.

“We should all know our jobs and if anyone is put into it they should know what to do.

“It’s not as much down to personnel, as long as we all know our jobs we’ll be fine.”

Clare is a relatively new convert to full back, having started his career further forward.

But keeping a clean sheet is now a source of real satisfaction.

He said: "Definitely, my mindset has changed in that sense.

"Before it was goals, but now the clean sheet is equally as important.

"I think we've only conceded two goals so far (in pre-season) – and that was to a Premier League team (Crystal Palace).

"We've looked at the goals and I think those could have been avoided as well.

"We're in good shape, the back four have done well but it's still early days.

"The Palace game showed us a few things and I feel we rectified them against QPR.

"I'm sure we'll go through the video and see a few mistakes we made here and we'll look to rectify them as well.

"It's a work in progress throughout the season. We will concede goals, but as long as we get better that's the main thing."

Clare had been an unused substitute for Gillingham in his only previous visit to the Kassam Stadium.

So the 23-year-old was pleased to finally have a chance to get used to his surroundings.

He said: “I’ve been here before but never made it on to the pitch.

“I really enjoyed it, the pitch suits how we want to play.”