Julian Alsop looks certain to come straight back into the side following his five-game ban after Oxford United lost 1-0 at Leyton Orient on Saturday - their second successive away defeat.

The big centre forward will return for Wednesday's home game against Scunthorpe when the U's will be determined to bounce back after one of their most disappointing league performances of the season.

A lapse of concentration at a corner midway through the second half by skipper Andy Crosby let in Orient's top scorer, Gary Alexander.

And manager Ian Atkins was frustrated that his team wasted so many attacking opportunities themselves.

"My big criticism was of how many crosses we put behind the bar," he said.

"And we also had a lot of corners and crosses where we hit the first man.

"In these conditions, Julian would have been a godsend and because we didn't have a big target man, we didn't cross enough.

"I'm disappointed because we were poor in certain areas of the game," he added. "Their two centre halves probably dominated our strikers.

"We said before the game that Orient were never going to score from general play, but their long throws and set pieces are dangerous, and we lost concentration for a vital second. It was very tight and in those kinds of games you've got to make things happen, which we didn't do. At times our decision-making was poor.

"It was very windy, very bobbly and difficult to get the ball down, so there was every chance that one goal would settle it.

"They use long throws and set-pieces to good effect and we handled it well apart from one lapse of concentration by one individual at a corner.

"We spent half an hour on Friday trying to combat long throws and corners.

"But, as I said before this game, this is a difficult stage of the season and you get some unexpected results."

United remain in third place because fourth-placed Mansfield were beaten 3-0 at Rochdale.

Huddersfield fans must be feeling sick. Just hours after selling top scorer Jon Stead to Blackburn, their six-game winning streak came to an end with a 2-0 home defeat by second-from-bottom Darlington, and to rub salt into their wounds Stead got Blackburn's winner at Middlesbrough in the Premiership.

Richie Foran (pictured) is returning to Carlisle at the end of his month's loan.

During the month that Alsop has been suspended, United have won two, drawn one and lost two.

Oxford will go six points clear of Mansfield if they beat Scunthorpe, who let slip a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 against Doncaster at the weekend.

Atkins has been trying to fix up a reserve game for today to give Alsop a run-out.