ELLIOTT Moore urged Oxford United to maintain the level they reached at Crewe Alexandra in the final six games of the season.

The U’s blew away their hosts with five goals in 15 minutes either side of half-time, helping them to a 6-0 victory – equalling their record Football League away win, set at Lincoln City in September 2019.

Moore was one of six different scorers as United bounced back from the Easter defeats to Sunderland and Accrington Stanley to keep their Sky Bet League One play-off hopes alive.

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Karl Robinson’s side are still only ninth, four points off the top six, but their captain felt they played with a freedom that was missing the previous weekend.

“There was a little bit of pressure off with how the games went,” Moore said.

“The performance against Accy was not good and we had to put that right.

“We showed what we’re capable of and we need to do that week-in, week-out.”

Josh Ruffels’ 37th-minute header set the U’s on their way, before James Henry scored the second and sent in a delicious free-kick that Moore poked home in first-half stoppage time.

“I didn’t expect it, but I’m always happy to score,” the 24-year-old said.

“The other goals were brilliant and it was a great all-round performance.

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“I always want to contribute to goals – set-pieces are a big thing we’ve worked on this year.

“It has paid off for me personally, so I’m very happy about that.”

Brandon Barker, Cameron Brannagan and Sam Winnall completed the scoring after the break as United responded to successive defeats with a morale-boosting win for the second time in three weeks.

They failed to pick up a single point from games against Blackpool and Northampton Town last month, before overcoming promotion contenders Lincoln City.

That was followed by the Easter defeats, but the U’s cannot afford anymore slip-ups in their back-to-back home games against Shrewsbury Town tomorrow and Gillingham this weekend.

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Moore said: “We need to reflect on the good things, know what we can do better and then move on to Tuesday, because that’s a massive game.

“There’s a lot of teams in the hunt, it’s still tight up there and we don’t know what’s going to happen.

“We’ve got to take every game as it comes, perform like that as much as we can and we’ll get the results.”