LEWIS Bate says the Oxford United dressing room remains as close as ever despite suffering a fourth consecutive defeat.

A smart finish from Ryan Bowman, with little over quarter of an hour to play, provided in-form Shrewsbury Town all three points at the Kassam Stadium.

United’s home win against Ipswich Town on January 21 lifted them to 10th in Sky Bet League One, and injected a fresh wave of optimism at the club.

However, losses at Wycombe Wanderers and Burton Albion, plus home defeats within four days against Barnsley and Shrewsbury, have brought the spotlight back on head coach Karl Robinson.

Fans have been vocal in their calls for Robinson to be sacked, yet Leeds United loanee Bate believes the squad remains together.

READ MORE: Reaction from Karl Robinson after Oxford United lose fourth game on bounce

The 20-year-old said: “Four games on the bounce losing isn’t great at any football club.

“The standards here are very high, the fans expect more and they deserve more.

“We’re all together as a group, the players and staff, and we’re really hoping we can turn this around.

“We’re in a massive battle on and off the pitch, it’s a massive learning curve but ultimately I’ve come here and I want to win games.

“As a group, we’re more together than ever, the players and staff.

“We back each other to the end, four losses on the bounce is never going to be good.

“It’s very disappointing for all of us, but we are massively wanting to turn this around.”

The performance against Shrewsbury was certainly an improvement on recent games, particularly in the first half, but that left Bate and his teammates even more frustrated when they ended the game with nothing to show for their efforts.

“I think we deserved all three points, it’s very disappointing when we dominated the game to come away with nothing,” he said.

“When we played Burton and Wycombe, we deserved to lose because the performances weren’t good enough but the performance was there.

“As a group, we had a clear game plan and we stuck to it.

“To come away with nothing is a surprise to all of us.”

One positive to come from the display against the Shrews was the individual performances of Bate and Marcus McGuane in the middle of the park.

With Cameron Brannagan absent due to a hip complaint picked up against Barnsley, Robinson shuffled his midfield to accommodate being without his talisman.

Bate dropped into the deeper role usually occupied by McGuane, while the latter was pushed further up the pitch.

“Losing Cam’s a massive miss. We’re a big enough squad to play without him but he’s a massive part of this squad,” said Bate.

“With Marcus McGuane going higher, I thought he was outstanding.

“It was a swapped role for both of us, I enjoyed it but I want to give credit to Marcus because he played very well.

“For the last four years at Chelsea, I played in that role just in front of the back four and then I went to Leeds, and I changed a bit and had to adapt.

“I enjoy playing there but as long as I’m playing, I’m happy.”