DES Buckingham was disappointed to see a half-time tactical switch prove futile in Oxford United’s heavy defeat at Bolton Wanderers.

The U’s found themselves 2-0 down at the break, with Buckingham introducing Sam Long for Fin Stevens at half-time.

The change saw United switch to a 3-4-1-2 set-up, to match the Trotters’ three-man defence. Long played on the right of the back three, with Owen Dale and Greg Leigh at wing back, while Josh Murphy went up front with Mark Harris.

However, Bolton added their third goal of the night after 59 minutes, with two more to follow over the course of the next 10 minutes.

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Buckingham said: “We wanted to match them up because we felt they were getting too much success in certain areas of the field, so it just made it a little bit simpler for people to understand their roles, and to stop them doing what they wanted.

“The idea was to push Murph on alongside Sparky because we felt that with his pace, we could certainly get in behind because they were very aggressive in their press, and leaving a lot of space in behind.

“They got the third before we even got an opportunity to even implement any of that, so we switched back to what we were doing, to try and make sure we shored ourselves up.”