Oxford City boss Mike Ford said a half-time rollicking had the desired effect, but he was disappointed they could not turn their second-half dominance into a victory in Saturday’s first round tie.

Ford felt some of his players were off the pace in the opening period.

He said “I thought my players were a little bit scared in the first half, frightened to make mistakes, frightened to run past players.

“But I thought second half we were much better and we missed a lot of chances to put the game to bed.

“They were probably a bit aggrieved to have one disallowed at the death, but I think if you look at the highlights, we should have probably won the game by three or four.”

“At half time, I shouted at them,” he said. “We spoke walking off the pitch that we were looking scared. I told the players that the worst thing we could have done was not to give it a right go.

Ford added: “Full credit to their keeper, he made some really good saves, but we did miss a few bankers.

“Because we didn’t get our rewards, it gave them a bit of encouragement, but I think we deserved that little bit of luck at the end with the disallowed goal.”