This week's back-to-back defeats by Brentford and Walsall have made it Oxford United's worst start to a season for nine years.

Not since the 1991-2 campaign have they begun with four straight league defeats.

That season, when they eventually finished 20th in Division 2, they opened with five successive defeats before goals from Trevor Aylott and Andy Melville helped them to a 2-2 draw at home to Millwall. And the following match, they beat Derby County 2-0 with Aylott again and David Penney (above) on the scoresheet.

The bad run then, in fact, stretched to seven league defeats in a row, when the two defeats at the end of the 1990-91 season are taken into account.

United's current league form is five straight defeats because they lost 1-0 at Millwall in the final game of last season.