Oxford United boss Chris Wilder admitted football can be a cruel game after his team lost to two stoppage-time goals at Luton.

“Sometimes you don’t get what you deserve and we didn’t deserve to get beaten,” he said following the 2-1 defeat at Kenilworth Road.

United lost top spot in the Blue Square Premier and now trail Stevenage by three points after Graham Westley's team recovered from a goal down to beat Mansfield 3-1.

But, heartbreaking though the defeat was for the U's, Wilder says he is confident his players showed they have got what it takes to stay at the top.

“We're all right. We came to a real difficult place today.

“My players never let me down, and didn’t let the fans down. They’ve been cruelly denied a win with the free-kick (that led to the corner which produced the equaliser).

“Adam Chapman made a clean tackle on Craig Nelthorpe, and from that free-kick they score the equaliser. Then six minutes, SIX MINUTES into stoppage time, they score the winner.

“Things have gone against us, but we’re putting the effort in and we’re bang in this title race – make no mistake about that.

“We’ve shown that tonight, because we’ve come to a real difficult place and matched them.

“We were the better side first half, apart from the last five minutes. They pushed us back a bit second half and we managed to get our noses in front, but I thought we were comfortable and it was a real good away performance, until obviously the dying embers of the game.

“You don’t like conceding goals straight from set pieces. The second corner went straight in, and the goalkeeper’s possibly got to deal with it, but it’s gone right into the top corner, so they’ve possibly had a bit of luck on that.”

Wilder was annoyed that the winning goal came in the sixth minute of stoppage time, after the referee had made it known, through the fourth official at the end, that there would be five minutes added on.

“To me, five minutes plus 30 seconds added on for the goal makes five minutes and 30 seconds, not six minutes,” he said.