Centre forward James Constable said the Oxford United players didn’t blame goalkeeper Ryan Clarke for the defeat against Tamworth on Saturday.

Clarke, who made a blunder when Iyseden Christie chipped him in the 28th minute, which handed greatly to Tamworth the winner, has saved the team on countless occasions this season.

And the rest of the team were just as culpable as they didn’t get their act together.

“We’re just bitterly disappointed we can’t start after this long break with at least a point,” Constable said.

“And now it makes Tuesday’s game massive to put it right.

“It was unfortunate for Clarkey. He’s kept us in a number of games, so we won't be looking at him.

“It’s one of those things, it happens in the Premiership and to the best of them, and he did well after that.

“It’s just disappointing we couldn’t take one or two of the chances we created."

United started the game superbly, but couldn’t put away their early opportunities, and then frustration set in as their play tailed off.

“We started well with a few shots, but after that I don’t think we had a shot again for another 60-65 minutes,” he said. “After that first five minutes, it was just a case of pushing on and I think if we’d got that first one, we’d have got two or three.

“Obviously, we’ve been unfortunate with games being cancelled, and I thought first half we looked like we haven’t played together for a while.

“I wouldn’t say it was down to training, I think we’ve trained plenty and covered everything.

“Things didn’t fall for us and we didn’t get decisions. You could see the frustration there at the end, the lads were bitterly disappointed we didn’t get the decision we thought we should have got, and they (Tamworth) got a lot of decisions we thought they shouldn’t have got.

“It was just frustration. We created chances, they just didn’t quite fall for us. They had four cleared off the line, once they got the goal they camped really in their own half and we couldn’t close the game.”

Constable added: “There’s no need to panic, it’s only one game lost, and in terms of our performance, we didn’t play in a way that deserved to win it.

“We’ve let ourselves down, but it’s probably the first time here that we have done, and we’ve just got to get back to the way we can play on Tuesday.”