DES Buckingham rued his Oxford United side giving away ‘cheap goals’ as they fell to a 3-1 defeat at Bristol Rovers.

The loss saw United slip out of the top six in Sky Bet League One, with the team now seventh, and behind Stevenage on goal difference.

Chris Martin handed the Pirates the lead, after a cross from the right-hand side was allowed to travel the face of goal and reach him in space at the back post, while the second goal came six minutes later, when Luke Thomas arrowed in a strike from the edge of the box.

U’s head coach Buckingham said: “In the first half, we’ve given away two cheap goals, and when you do that away from home, it’s very difficult.

“I thought we responded extremely well in the second half, and the goalkeeper has picked up man of the match for them.

“We created the chances, but we just couldn’t get ourselves back in it, after getting the one, and then of course, when you’re chasing the game, you leave yourself vulnerable.”

He added: “It just didn’t work in the first half. They went quite direct and we dealt with most of it.

“It was disappointing to concede two cheap goals, and we can’t do that away from home, to put ourselves in that position to chase games.”

Buckingham also expressed his frustration at his lack of options, in implementing his playing style at United.

He said: “I’ve been clear in how I want us to play. We’re limited at the moment in terms of how we can set up, with the players we have, and formation.

“I want to play with two wingers. We can’t quite do that at the moment.

“Tyler Goodrham’s been excellent, but he’s a player that wants to come to feet, and we’ve used him now as more of a 10 on the inside because of that.

“When we get Murph [Josh Murphy] back, and Tyler [Burey], and we’re still looking for one or two other players that can play the style of football that we want, we’ll be able to do what we did in the second half far more often.”