KARL Robinson was full of pride as Oxford United bounced back from a tough 48 hours with a heroic 3-2 defeat to Wigan Athletic.

The U’s had 11 players missing against the high-flying Latics, thanks to four positive Covid tests and several injuries.

They named just five substitutes, after James Henry pulled out with a calf issue in the warm-up.

But they were a matter of minutes from claiming a fully-deserved point, as goals from Ryan Williams and Matty Taylor hauled them back from 2-0 down.

Read the match report here

United looked more likely to win it as full-time approached, only for Wigan winger James McClean to lash past Simon Eastwood.

Robinson said: “I don’t think we felt sorry for ourselves at any stage.

“That’s one of the best games I’ve seen at this stadium, the football and the pace was mind-blowing.

“We just had nothing to change (off the bench), they brought on millions of pounds of players.

“But all the things we had control of went in our favour.

“They’ve scored a number of goals in the 85th minute onwards and you know why – you look at the strength in depth that they have and we’ll never be able to replicate that.”

It was United’s first Sky Bet League One defeat since October 16, ending a nine-match unbeaten run.

They fall to sixth in the table, six points behind second-placed Wigan, but Robinson hailed a special atmosphere as almost 8,500 fans created plenty of noise at the Kassam Stadium.

The U’s head coach added: “I’m still angry that we lost, but I’ve said to everybody in there that I’ve never been so proud.

“I think there’s a flame burning in Oxford at the moment and that’s not just the players, it’s the fans.

“Covid’s at its worst, but we’ve come here with one of our best attendances of the season.

“Their goal from a set-play we probably could’ve done a little bit better.

“There’s a foul in there, which the referee didn’t see, which is fine because he misses them.

“Our play was sensational, I honestly believe that if these players can really believe in moving forward together then we’ve got a really good team.

“We’ve had 11 players that weren’t available and I don’t think there’s many teams that could do that. I think we should have won.”

United were already missing several key men when the teams were announced at 2pm, with Jack Stevens, Jordan Thorniley, Cameron Brannagan, Herbie Kane and Nathan Holland among those unavailable.

It got worse when Henry limped off just 20 minutes from kick-off and Robinson rued his side’s luck.

He said: “That’s all part of what seems to be going on at the moment.

“It’s a bad one, his calf’s gone so we don’t know how long it’s going to be.”