Oxford United’s management team say they hope Steven Kinniburgh will learn from the red card he received in Saturday’s 1-0 win at Wrexham.
The 20-year-old left back was dismissed five minutes from time for a second yellow card, just five minutes after the home side’s experienced centre back Frank Sinclair had gone for a similar offence.
“Steven’s come into the club and done ever so well,” said assistant manager Mickey Lewis. “This is something he has to learn from.
“I thought Sinclair did take Dannie Bulman’s run, so that seemed a fair (second) booking, and Steven then made a bit of a rash challenge.
“But it’s always a tough game coming here and everyone in the back four did brilliantly.
“Our intention was to be nice and solid and we did that. There was a lot of good defending and we got a lot of good blocks in.
“We were quite happy to sit in behind them and frustrate them, we didn’t want the game too open, and I think that worked.”
Kinniburgh, who has yet to be in a team that has conceded a goal – in five matches – will be banned for one match, and misses this Saturday’s home game against Eastbourne.
Wilder, who wanted Lewis to do the main post-match interviews this week, said: “I was a bit disappointed with Stevie’s inexperience.
“He’s come down from Rangers’ reserve team football and has been chucked into the hurly-burly of senior football and was at a very difficult place to come.
“He’ll learn from that experience and we move on.”
Wilder added: “I thought the two centre backs were magnificent for us later on.
“Luke Foster had his best game for us for some time and Mark Creighton showed why we brought him into the club.
“On the back of Tuesday, this was by far the most difficult game we’ve played all season.
“We rode our luck at times, Wrexham had a lot of possession, but I thought the back four defended very well.
“We needed to move the ball and pass it, because with the formation Wrexham had we needed to get our fullbacks on the ball, and I thought we did that.
“The key to winning the game was the first ten minutes of each half, and we managed to come through that unscathed and it gave us the platform to go on and win.”
Skipper Adam Murray had some sympathy with the left back.
“Steven’s done well, it was just a bit of inexperience, but it’s all part of his learning curve,” he said.
“There were a few tackles first half that were nothing challenges and I think the ref put his mark on the game then.
“Come second half then he’s got no choice because he’s already booked people.”
He added: “Our management got the tactics spot on because they said we need to be more solid and maybe at times sit back and play on the counter, which we did, and we were unlucky not to get a couple more goals.”
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