FORMER Oxford United goal king Dean Saunders tortured his old club at the Manor on Saturday - both during and after their 2-0 defeat by Sheffield United.

The Wales striker scored one goal and made one to give the Blades their first away win for nearly a year and leave Oxford entrenched in the bottom three in Division 1.

And, just to make his old Oxford teammate Malcolm Shotton feel even worse, Deano confirmed that Sheffield United's points-clinching second goal was offside.

"When I gave it to Katchouro I thought he was offside. I looked along the line and he looked offside but fortunately for us the linesman didn't give it," Saunders said.

Deano's remarks merely confirmed what most of the crowd felt at the time. Shotton blasted: "Their second goal must have been three yards offside. Refereeing decisions in the last few weeks have cost us dearly."

The Oxford United manager is now resigned to losing record signing Dean Windass and England Under 21 defender Simon Marsh through suspension after each collected their fifth booking of the season on what turned out to be a desperate afternoon for the club.

"There were seven booked but there wasn't a bad tackle in the game," Shotton said. "It's criminal how refs book people for anything." However, he also acknowledged that his players had to take the blame for snatching at chances as their dismal run in front of goal continued.

"In the first half we played some excellent stuff, created some decent chances but if you don't take your chances it puts pressure on all the other players in the team,

"We're flashing at chances and that's down to confidence in front of goal. But we can't keep spurning chances like this.

"It was like this earlier in the season when we had a run where we couldn't score and then suddenly we couldn't stop scoring. I just hope it returns."

It's ten years ago this week that Saunders left Oxford in a £1m transfer to Derby that led to the end of Mark Lawrenson's reign as manager.

He said: "I didn't score many at that Cuckoo Lane end, they all came at the other end. But I knew from my time at Oxford that it's best to get them going downhill in the first half and to try and hang on. Now we've won away at last we can start believing we can do it."

Dutchman Brian Wilsterman, who gave another accomplished performance in defence, said: "If you don't score you can't win.

"The players worked very hard but I have a lot of experience that when you're at the bottom you don't get much luck. You always get moments like we had with their second goal.

"We deserved to win but when you don't win it gets harder and harder."

The U's have now taken just one point from their last 15 available and worryingly, QPR and Crewe, below them in the table, have games in hand. Crewe visit the Manor next Saturday and, even at this early stage, it looks like a relegation six-pointer.

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