MICHAEL Duberry admitted it was one of the strangest days of his career.

The Oxford United defender scored a hat-trick on Saturday – but two of the three goals came at the wrong end as the U’s could only draw 2-2 with struggling Hereford at the Kassam Stadium.

After leading through Jon-Paul Pittman’s strike, Duberry put through his own net in the 32nd and 85th minutes as the visitors looked set for a shock win.

But the former Chelsea and Leeds man was sent to play up front for the final stages, and popped up with a 90th-minute equaliser to complete a unique treble.

“It was certainly a strange one,” Duberry said.

“But I don’t want my name on the scoresheet three times like that.

“To be honest, with the amount of chances we had, we should be stood here laughing and joking about the own goals in a 5-2 or 6-2 victory.

“But we are not, instead we have only drawn.”

Duberry admitted he is no stranger to own goals throughout his career, but says that they are part and parcel of being a defender.

He is fourth on the all-time Premier League own goals list, with five to his name.

“I have scored own goals before, of course I have,” he said.

“I think there’s a stat that says I am among the leading own-goal scorers in the Premier League.

“But that’s because I put myself in the positions that you have to try stop goals.

“If you looked at my stats for the amount of times I have cleared chances, they would be far, far higher, so it’s one of those things.”

He added: “For the first one, we were attacking, they have broken, crossed, and the ball has just spun off my boot and gone in.

“The second one, we had the ball again, gave it away, the lad has crossed and I am that close to goal I had about four different things in my mind what to do with it, and in the end it’s hit me flush on the head and gone in.

“But then the gaffer’s told me to go up top and Tom Craddock has crossed the ball and I have put it in thankfully.

“I might ask to manager to stick me up front from the start next week and try and get a hat-trick at the right end,” he joked.

Boss Chris Wilder said: “It would have been a travesty if we had not got anything out of that game.”