ELLIOTT Moore pinpointed a lack of quality on the ball and a reduced urgency as two of the main factors in Oxford United’s defeat at home to Swansea City.
United saw their unbeaten home start come to a bitter end against the Swans, who went 2-0 up thanks to goals from Zan Vipotnik and Florian Bianchini.
Dane Scarlett pulled one back for the U’s with two minutes to go, and an unlikely equaliser was almost grabbed when Greg Leigh headed narrowly wide from Will Vaulks’ deep cross.
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United skipper Moore said: “It’s a disappointing game. I think we dealt with what they had, but maybe the urgency wasn’t there, and also we weren’t good enough on the ball.
“That was a big thing. We turned over the ball a lot and it gave them possession. We know they’re a possession-based team and we weren’t good enough on the ball.
“That’s been our strength. We’ve been very good on the ball, and very calm. I think we just lacked a bit of composure.
“We still created some very good chances, and if we’d taken them, it could’ve been a different game.
“We’re disappointed, but it’s a big week now and we’ve got to keep our heads up.”
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He added: “Every game is important in this league, and we know we’ve got to pick up points wherever we can, and we know we need to start winning games.
“We need to be more ruthless in both boxes. We’re better on the ball than that, we know that, and we need to show that on Tuesday.
“We just know we’re better than that. We need to be more composed, we need to believe that we can play the way that we’ve shown in the first couple of months in the season.
“We know we can do it, it’s just about getting out there and doing it.
“Every game is a different kind of pressure and a different challenge. We have to dust ourselves off and learn from what we’ve done, and what we can do better, and go put it right on Tuesday.”
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