Two-goal Steve MacLean admitted he should probably have finished with at least a hat-trick at the Kassam Stadium yesterday.

The on-loan Plymouth striker found the net early and late as the U’s beat Burton Albion 3-0 to keep maintain their play-off ambitions.

A second successive home win, it pushed Chris Wilder’s men to within three points of seventh-placed Torquay.

Struggling Burton had two players sent off in the second half, in a match littered with cards.

But for MacLean, all that mattered was the victory which keeps Oxford still firmly in the play-off hunt.

“It was a good afternoon’s work, we’re delighted with the three points,” he said afterwards.

“I thought we started really well. I got two goals, but should have had four.

“That was disappointing . . . I probably could have had three or four goals, but the keeper pulled off a couple of good saves. I could have been a bit more ruthless.”

Maclean showed he was keen to take the penalty when United were awarded a spot-kick, with Darren Moore bringing down James Constable in the box.

The Scot picked up the ball for himself, only for vice-captain Jake Wright to come over to tell him that Tom Craddock was the team’s official penalty taker at the moment, and let him have it!

But MacLean held his hand up afterwards and readily admitted he got carried away.

“Tommy takes them for the team, and he carries on taking them until the gaffer says no,” he said.

“It’s fair enough, it was bad from me, I should probably have given him the ball straight away. I’ll just take it on the chin.”

Next up for Oxford is a much tougher game on paper, away at third-placed Bury on Saturday.

MacLean said: “We’ve shown our resilience since the Stevenage game.

“We’ve put that to bed and had two good wins since.

“We go on the road to Bury next week full of confidence and looking to get the three points.

“We’ve been to Chesterfield and won. There is no-one in this division that we need to be afraid of, and we are full of confidence at the moment.”

Amazingly, it was United’s first clean sheet at home since September 4.

United coach Andy Melville said: “Our front three are a handful for anybody.

"What pleased me most is that we were a really strong unit at the back.

"In the first half Burton started to pass it and we didn't take care of the ball like we should have done and gave it away cheaply, which didn't give us enough chance to get into the game.

"Second half we passed it a lot better, and that showed in the third goal – although I know that they were down to nine men by then.

"We passed it around so much better and when you do that against nine men, obviously gaps are going to appear.”