DES Buckingham says the league is Oxford United’s priority after watching his side exit the EFL Trophy at the last 16 stage.

A brace from James Tilley ensured home side AFC Wimbledon progressed to the quarter finals, with the attacker netting a goal in each half.

Tilley grabbed his first strike when he rounded off a swift Dons counter-attack midway through the first half, and added his second goal of the evening five minutes into the second period.

United head coach Buckingham said after the match: “It’s a game at a time when we probably didn’t need it.

“We put a bit of a mixed team out, and even though it was a mixed team with some of the young players that we had playing, I thought we created several good chances in the first half, which we couldn’t convert.

“They hit us on the break with the one chance they did have, and made it 1-0.

“It was a similar story in the second half, with the transition, and then at 2-0, the game is almost done.

“The positives are a lot of young kids have played, and shown what they can do.

“They’ve been training with us, and we’ve been able to rest a lot of players going into Saturday and the second half of the season for us.”

The U’s make the trip to Carlisle United at the weekend, as they return to action in Sky Bet League One.

Buckingham added: “We had a wonderful chance in the first five minutes, which Nik Tzanev, who I’ve worked with in New Zealand in the national teams, made a wonderful save.

“We’ve had another good effort, which has deflected just past the post, and it doesn’t seem to be going in at the moment with those.

“They’ve had one chance, broken on us and scored, and the first goal does make a difference, but it’s just one moment of switching off.

“We won’t read too much into it, and the most important thing is that we’ve got minutes into players, and rest the others, to make sure we’re in a strong place come Saturday.

“I’ve always been clear that for us, the priority is the league, and it always has been.

“It is nice to go through in the competition, but I think at the moment, with the limited numbers we do have, if you’ve got a full squad and you can rotate, you can fight on two or three different stages.

“We’re not in that space at the moment, and it’s about making sure we protect the players and prepare them for the league.”