LUKE McNally knows Oxford United must tighten up as a worrying trend continued at Portsmouth.

The U’s conceded two goals or more for the ninth time in 12 matches as they went down 3-2 at Fratton Park.

Pompey’s three strikes came in the space of 18 minutes either side of half-time, with Marcus Browne’s early opener and McNally’s late consolation bookending the scoring.

United remain fourth in Sky Bet League One with ten games of the season left, but the centre back is aware they cannot keep shipping so many goals.

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McNally said: “I didn’t think we were second-best, that’s the way it felt.

“I always felt we were well in the game, but we can’t concede three goals and expect to win.

“Sometimes when we win, we draw over the fact that we concede two at home.

“It needs sorting out, if we expect to get out of this league we have to stop conceding.”

Browne finished a slick move inside three minutes to mark the first start of his third spell with a goal and United were comfortable, albeit without controlling possession.

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But Pompey roared back with two strikes in the final five minutes of the half, Sean Raggett rising to head home and George Hirst taking advantage when the U’s left themselves open on the break.

McNally added: “We knew Raggett was good in the air, so it’s disappointing.

“He’s got a head on it, but he’s put it right in the top corner. It’s skidded off his head with the water and it’s a very hard one for Jack to stop.

“That first goal is disappointing and we just have to see it out, get to half-time at 1-1 and regroup. Unfortunately we couldn’t do that.”

Hayden Carter fired in from long range after United failed to close him down, before McNally gave his side hope when he converted Sam Baldock’s cross in the 81st minute.

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It was the 22-year-old’s second goal against Pompey in the space of a month, having scored in the return fixture at the Kassam Stadium, but the U’s could not complete the comeback.

“I scored a very similar goal back in Ireland,” he said.

“I was obviously happy to score, it’s not somewhere I find myself often getting the pull-back from Sam.

“We probably could have pressed a bit more and squeezed another chance, I don’t remember a clear-cut one after that.

“It was disappointing that we didn’t test the keeper after that goal.

“We have to forget about it, we’ll be back out on Saturday before we know it so we have to bounce back.”