KARL Robinson says he will savour Oxford United’s win over Burton Albion.
The U’s beat the Sky Bet League One basement boys 2-1 at the Kassam Stadium, with Cameron Brannagan and Kyle Joseph putting the hosts 2-0 ahead before Victor Adeboyejo set up a nervous finale.
It was not a vintage United performance, but they secured a third successive victory despite having seven first-team players unavailable.
And with no Tuesday night game this coming week, Robinson’s message to his players in the dressing room was simple: enjoy this.
“This will probably live longer in the memory than any of the scintillating performances we’ve had here,” the U’s head coach said.
“I will enjoy this. I said to the players: You’ve got Monday off, do what you want tonight.
“Sometimes you have to celebrate horrible wins and tonight, if I was them, I would celebrate it.
“I know it wasn’t pretty, I’m not trying to deflect from a poor performance in relation to the exhilarating style that we look for.
“It was a shadow of the players that we’ve been accustomed to over the last two and a half years.
“This team is a good team and they’ll find momentum somewhere, they’ll get fitter and better.
“You just wish it had happened three or four weeks ago.”
The main talking point of a drab first half was the one minute of stoppage-time, despite Burton using up several minutes over throw-ins.
Brannagan scored within three minutes of the restart, converting from close range after Joseph’s deflected shot hit the bar.
The striker than slotted home midway through the second half, only for Adeboyejo to pull one back moments later despite an apparent foul on Sam Long.
Joe Powell struck the crossbar from a free-kick, before Madden added seven minutes of stoppage-time as the hosts secured victory the hard way.
On the lack of stoppage-time, Robinson said: “He (the referee) said ‘we don’t put time on for throw-ins’.
"You can take a minute for every throw in, but you forget that Stuart Findlay went down for two minutes with a head injury.”
He added: “I don’t know what I would have had in me if they’d scored again.
“I had to stay as positive as I possibly could for my players.
“I was almost becoming too loud because I was trying to make the players notice I was there with them.
“Their goal was a shambles (from the referee), he gets pushed in the back and their free-kick that led to them hitting the bar was exactly the same type of challenge.”
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