OXFORD United were brought down to earth with a 4-2 defeat to Burton Albion where players and boss Karl Robinson held their hands up to take the blame.

Expectations had been raised by a bright start to the season and the signing of Matty Taylor, who came straight into the starting line-up.

But it was another summer signing who starred as United came from behind to lead early in the second half, Anthony Forde setting up Cameron Brannagan’s equaliser before the winger opened his goalscoring account.

From there the evening unravelled, though, as Scott Fraser hit a hat-trick for the Brewers.

READ MORE: Oxford 2, Burton 4

Forde was hugely disappointed United threw away a winning position and felt the hosts had played a large part in their own downfall.

He said: “It’s managing the game, using your head.

“When you’re 2-1 up at home you need to see the game out – not just sitting back and letting them come at you.

“You have to be sensible and for whatever reason we didn’t do that.”

He added: “We just need to look back on what we didn’t do right in the second half.

“We need to stop that if it happens again. Because if we stop that when we go ahead, we’re getting three points.”

While United never looked as sharp as they have for most of the games so far this season, Robinson held himself responsible for allowing the contest to get away from his side.

After Fraser’s second goal, which came via a deflection, the head coach made a double substitution and changed their shape into a 4-4-2.

But he thought it saw them go for broke when there was still almost a quarter of the game remaining.

He said: “We didn’t put the ball in the box quick enough, we didn’t play forward quick enough, but equally I have to take responsibility.

“I made a double substitution far too early and that is my responsibility.

“You’ve seen in a number of games this year where if you keep your shape and discipline gaps will appear at this level.”

He added: “From those two substitutions the game became a basketball match.

“It was poor from me and is something I’ll take the blame for.”

The circumstances meant Taylor, who had played just ten minutes of competitive action for Bristol City this season, ended up playing the full game.

United will have to wait and see if that has an impact on how much he can feature against Bristol Rovers on Saturday.

Robinson said: “When you’re chasing the game if you bring a goalscorer off it’s criminal. We’ll see how he recovers.”