JOSH Ruffels admitted a second defeat to rock-bottom Bury this season was inexcusable, but the Oxford United midfielder says it is premature to start looking down.

Pep Clotet’s side were poor, but James Henry’s goal on the stroke of half-time appeared to have done enough to secure victory.

That was until the closing stages, when Shakers substitutes George Miller and Harry Bunn struck in the space of three minutes to give the basement boys their first away win for 11 months in Sky Bet League One.

The U’s are now eight points from sixth place and fourth bottom, but while Ruffels did not mince his words about the performance, talk of being dragged into a battle at the wrong end of the table was dismissed.

He said: “I don’t think we need to do that yet.

“We’re still close enough to the play-offs and you’ve got to keep hoping.

“If you want to look over your shoulder there’s no point in you being here.

“We’re going to be positive, we’re not going to dwell on a loss and think we’re going to get relegated all of a sudden.

“It doesn’t work like that, we’ll stay positive and keep working hard.”

He added: “I thought we were comfortable and had it under control, but one thing led to another and we ended up 2-1 down.

“It’s bitterly disappointing.”

The result meant two of Bury’s five league wins this season have come against United, who were beaten 3-0 at Gigg Lane.

The Shakers’ goals in September had all come in an eight-minute spell and again on Saturday the U’s conceded in quick succession.

It has been a common theme this season, which infuriated Ruffels.

“It’s an absolute nightmare and it’s so frustrating as a player,” he said.

“You want to bounce back if you do concede a goal, but to concede another straight away just deflates you.

“In the last ten minutes again, it’s so annoying.

“To lose to Bury twice in a season with where they are (bottom) just shouldn’t be happening.

“There’s no excuse for it, we’ve got to do better.

“We’ve got to be clinical and cut out the mistakes. Every time we make a mistake it goes badly for us and we concede a goal.

“And it’s also at the other end, in both boxes we’re not good enough at the moment.

“We need to be better at scoring goals and stopping them.”