PAOLO Di Canio begrudgingly admitted a clinical Oxford United deserved to win Saturday’s derby against his Swindon Town side.

The U’s had few clear chances after James Constable’s early sending off, but Asa Hall and Oli Johnson made the most of openings to score in the space of three first-half minutes.

Despite Swindon enjoying the lion’s share of possession and efforts on goal, they were kept out by a terrific rearguard action which sealed a 2-0 win for the hosts.

In the build-up to the derby a bullish Di Canio said he wanted his team to “hurt” Oxford after they had won at the County Ground in August, but the Robins boss conceded the visitors did not do enough.

He said: “We had three crazy minutes that unfortunately it happened against Oxford, the big rival for our fans.

“We paid our price. In some way they deserve the win, even if we had 20 shots against four, but I always say statistics don’t count if they’re not effective.”

The visitors came into the game on the back of ten successive victories which had taken them top of npower League Two.

Di Canio felt the electric atmosphere created by the 10,500 U’s fans at a packed Kassam Stadium had played a key role in the result, with some of the Swindon players unable to handle the occasion.

He said: “Some of the players felt some pressure because it’s a different game.

“Not everybody can play this kind of game, for example some players can play against Man United, against Wigan, but this game maybe they suffer and are not capable.

“We have to be honest, my players proved they’re not ready to play in this type of game.

“I told them, not because I want to hurt them, but because they showed this in the second half, we didn’t create any chances.”