JOHN Mousinho was relieved his roller coaster cameo ended on the right note as he booked Oxford United’s place in the Carabao Cup second round.

The club captain came on with three minutes left at Burton Albion, moments after Nathan Holland had given the U’s the lead.

But the ball ricocheted off an unfortunate Mousinho and into his own net in the sixth minute of stoppage-time to take the game to penalties.

Read the match report here

United’s heads could have gone down but Mark Sykes, Anthony Forde and Dan Agyei scored from the spot, while Simon Eastwood saved from Lucas Akins and Tom O’Connor hit the crossbar.

That allowed Mousinho a shot at redemption and he smashed the ball past Ben Garratt to seal a second round trip to QPR in the week commencing August 23.

It was agony to ecstasy for the 35-year-old, playing in his first competitive appearance since December, against his former club.

He said: “It was one of those that as soon as I stuck my leg out I knew it was going in the wrong direction.

“It was a lonely place to be when the ball went in, having come on to see the game out.

“It felt like at that point we’d lost the game, but thankfully it turned out well for us.”

On the penalty, he added: “I’ve done it a few times now for Oxford, hopefully it’s still fairly unpredictable for the goalkeepers because it can still go either way.

“I’ll swear to the grave that I have control of that.”

A United side showing eight changes struggled for cohesion against a Burton team who only made one alteration to the line-up that beat Shrewsbury Town 1-0 last weekend.

They rode their luck at times, with John Brayford hitting the bar and Mark Sykes clearing Conor Shaughnessy’s header off the line.

But Holland, in the squad for the first time this season after only returning from isolation this week, finished an excellent move to seemingly snatch victory.

Then came the drama of the own goal and penalties, with United ending the evening looking forward to a trip to Sky Bet Championship opponents in a fortnight’s time.

Mousinho said: “It’s a really good draw, I do love playing there.

“They’re a really good side and they played some very good football last season.

“To go away to a Championship side and test ourselves, it’s a level we want to be and we’ve got very close for the last couple of seasons.

“We’ve got a QPR connection with Jamie Mackie and Rob Dickie, who has gone there and is absolutely flying.”