Chris Wilder says that an apology today from referee James Adcock will just make his Oxford United squad even more frustrated after Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Bradford.

The U’s looked to be heading for their first victory of the season after Simon Heslop fired them ahead with a great first-half strike.

But a controversial equaliser from Ross Hannah saw the visitors snatch a point.

Wilder and his players were livid that Adcock did not see what he called “a blatant foul on Michael Duberry” from Luke Oliver in the build-up to the equaliser.

And to compound their misery, after the U’s boss had spoken to the official, the response Wilder got did little to diffuse the situation.

“He said that he will apologise to me and Michael Duberry on Monday morning if he has got it wrong,” Wilder said.

“That’s really big of him. I’m really pleased that he is going to do that because that makes it all OK, doesn’t it?

“I asked him whether he would have apologised had they scored the free-kick in the first five minutes that he awarded when my player has won the ball.

“Referees have got to get decisions like that right. Michael has been blatantly pushed in the back and the ref hasn’t seen it.”

Wilder added: “The amount of decisions officials have got wrong in the first three games is absolutely frightening.

“The LMA (League Manager's Association) wonder why managers get into trouble (for talking about referees), but that is a rubbish decision and that’s three games now and we have had three ridiculously poor performances from the referee.

“I don’t want to use it as an excuse for not winning the game because we should have done, but it’s hard to take when all my players have seen the foul, but the officials haven’t.”

United were in control until midway through the second half when it appeared their efforts against Cardiff in midweek began to take their toll.

“We ran out of steam a bit,” Wilder admitted. “We looked a bit leggy in the last 20 minutes, but credit to my players because after the goal we came again and still tried to force the issue in the last ten minutes.”