Hill bemused by red card

7:40pm Sunday 5th October 2008

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Rushden & Diamonds manager Garry Hill said he had no qualms about the final result at the Kassam Stadium on Saturday, but he was unhappy, and perplexed, with the red card shown to left back Gareth Jelleyman, writes JON MURRAY.

"Oxford deserved to win the game over the 90 minutes, but I think everyone in the ground was amazed by the red card," Hill said.

"What annoyed me was that just after I'd changed formation, we let a player run 50 yards into space to score.

"It was a fantastic strike from Trainer, but you've got to work hard when you haven't got the ball, and track back.

"At 2-1 it could have gone either way, and it was very open. It's hard enough when you have 11 players, let alone ten. Had we scored from the chance Leon Knight had, we might have gone on to win it."

Rushden, having spent a lot of money in the summer, were one of the favourites for promotion, but they remain outside the play-off places.

"We can't get too disappointed by today," Hill said.

"We've got to make our next two home games important. Our results had been better away than at home before today, and we need to change that."