Give us a break . . . that's the message from Oxford United boss Ian Atkins, who believes his side just need a change of fortune to reignite their promotion charge.

Their quest for automatic promotion has faltered in recent weeks with three successive away defeats and two points dropped at home to Bury last Saturday.

"We said to the players, we'd only lost one out of 27 and had been getting some breaks, but since Hull, we haven't had any luck," Atkins said.

"We didn't get the rub of the green on Saturday, because for Bury's goal, they had two players offside.

"We just need a break to go 1-0 up. And when we do get one, then the opposition have got to come out against us.

"Since Christmas, apart from Scunthorpe, we've never really had our noses in front."

Skipper Andy Crosby agreed, and added that a change of luck in winning the toss wouldn't go amiss!

"I don't think people realise the conditions and how strong the wind is at the Kassam Stadium," he told United's official website.

"In the first half, the ball was going nowhere. I lost the toss and they turned us round. That's happened in the last few games here, so hopefully, I will get a change of luck with that.

"We said after the game that we just need to get a 1-0 win with a flukey goal off someone's backside or something.

"And on the way into training, we were saying that if we'd had this run in October/November time, no-one would have been worried about us.

"We picked up an awful lot of points before Christmas and now, after a couple of dodgy results, people are getting a bit worried and a bit down.

"But if anyone had said to us before the season started that we would now have 60 points with 14 games left, and only be five behind the leaders, we'd have snapped their hand off."

Crosby has returned to training after the late challenge from Bury striker Jon Daly, which left him with lacerations on his leg.

Alongside him in United's defence at Bristol Rovers this weekend is likely to be Matt Bound, who is set for a recall as Jon Ashton is suspended for collecting five yellow cards.