By Mark Edwards FIRST-TEAM coach Mickey Lewis says he can't go on making excuses for his Oxford United team.

Last night's 4-0 drubbing at home to Preston, which followed a 5-0 thrashing by Bristol Rovers at the Manor ten days ago, means that Lewis's men have now not won in the league since Boxing Day.

What's more, they have not scored in their last four games and have conceded 13 goals.

"It's all going wrong at the moment," admitted Lewis afterwards. "But we can't keep making excuses for ourselves.

"The players have to take a look at each other and then stand up and be counted. We have to pick ourselves up from this or we will be in real touble."

Two goals from John Macken and one apiece for David Eyres and Michael Appleton saw Preston move up to second and United stay in the bottom four.

But Lewis also felt referee Alan Butler did Oxford no favours at all. "The ref's given a corner for their second goal and he must have been the only person in the ground who thought it was one.

"Then, he's given a free-kick against Mark Watson that should never have been a free-kick and suddenly they're 3-0 ahead.

"I don't want to have a go at the players because they need confidence, but it's the same old story of us not taking our chances.

"We had two or three really, really good chances but didn't take them."

Lewis also said that he may now rethink his tactics for home matches. "It's a problem playing the 4-4-2 formation because although we attack well, we're always very suspect on the break, and Preston showed that.

"We fell away at the end tonight, but believe me, I'm a big fan of the club and I was the most disappointed supporter out of everyone tonight.

"Everything seemed to go against us."

Story date: Wednesday 02 February

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