Paul McLaren says that it was bad decisions in key areas that cost Oxford United victory at Crewe last week.

And the midfielder, pictured, says that when that problem is corrected, the U’s know they will be fine.

“At half-time we all felt that game was winnable even though we were 2-0 down,” he said.

“We said that if we got a goal in the first ten or 15 minutes of the second half we would really have them on the back foot.

“And while we did have them on the back foot for nearly all the second half, we just couldn’t get that all-important goal that would have probably changed the game.

“When you’re on top and they break away and score like they did it kills you.

“But I still felt that we were likely to score and get back into the game even after that.

He added: “The gaffer and Mickey (Lewis) do a hell of a lot of shape in training, but a lot of it is down to decision-making at the end of the day.

“We haven’t scored a hatful of goals this season, but we will because we know we have got the players to do that.

“But you can’t mull over it, it’s gone and now we need to get our heads down and look to get the result on Saturday.”