OXFORD United have work to do on the training ground to solve their unwanted habit of conceding the opening goal, according to centre back Johnny Mullins.

Craig Westcarr’s strike inside two minutes at Mansfield Town meant the U’s have fallen behind in each of their four games in Sky Bet League Two this season.

Again Michael Appleton’s men showed resolve to get back in the game, drawing 1-1 thanks to Kemar Roofe’s penalty.

Mullins was keen to emphasise the positive aspects of United’s display, but conceded they had to stop giving the team’s attacking players a mountain to climb.

He said: “We want them to be scoring the goals to get all the glory, not get us out of trouble and save us a point.

“We are working desperately hard on the training pitch to remedy what we’re not happy with and we’ll continue to do that until we get it right.”

He added: “In my opinion we’ve got a hell of a lot of ability and character, as you can see with us keep coming from behind.

“We showed what we can do when we haven’t got to come from behind at Brentford (a 4-0 win) and that’s what we’re striving for.

“As good as we are and as good as we can be we’ve got to start games better and we’ve got to score that first goal.”

The draw did extend United’s impressive unbeaten run to 13 games in all competitions.

Mullins said: “It’s something we take great pride in.

“We want to keep the run going, it would’ve been nice to get the three points, but we’ve got to take the positives from it because there’s a hell of a lot of them.”