Michael Duberry says that although he was fouled for the Bradford equaliser, Oxford United should have won the game anyway.

The U’s defender was aggrieved that a push from Luke Oliver on him went unpunished in the build-up to Bradford’s equaliser.

“It feels like a defeat, to be honest,” the former Chelsea man said.

“It was a push on me. I felt it, and everyone saw it apart from the three most important people on the park – the officials.

“But I thought we should have killed the game before that.”

Duberry says that the point will hopefully teach United the harsh realities of winning games.

“We had good possession and were in control at times at Rotherham, but we came away with nothing,” he said.

“We have got a point today, so we are up and running in terms of points, but we should have won that game and be much higher in the table.

“Games like this we have to kill off and not give the opposition a chance to get back into them.

“At half-time, they were up against it and you could see from the way they celebrated the goal that they were delighted with the point.”

He added: “We have to be more clinical up front and from set-pieces – and that means defenders like myself have to start getting our heads on things in the opponents’ area.

“In the second half, we let them to get back into the game by allowing them to get tackles in and nick the ball away from us, and we didn’t do that first half.”

Duberry did not want to say too much on the referee for risk of landing himself in trouble.

“I’ve had enough trouble for hammering referees in the past, so I’m just going to keep a bit quiet,” he said.

“But the referee needs help from his officials. They are a three-man team and you hope that if the referee does not see something, the other officials do and are then brave enough to put up their flag.”

Bradford boss Peter Jackson was delighted with the point and the way his side went about things in the second half.

“It was a great point because this is a really difficult place to come,” he said.

“Oxford are fancied to be up there at the end of the season, so I thought we showed great spirit to come back.

“We gave them too much room in the first half, but our keeper didn’t have a great amount to do nonetheless.

“But we were much better in the second half.”