ANTHONY Tonkin said that Oxford United’s 0-0 draw at Morecambe on Saturday came about because the team went back to doing what they do best.

The point ended a run of five straight defeats for the U’s, and was fully deserved.

And Tonkin said that the team did exactly what they needed to do – got back to basics.

“It’s been disappointing over the past few weeks, but it was great to grind out a draw today,” the left back said.

“We always come to win games. But if you can’t win, you have to make sure that you take something out of it, and that’s what we did.”

Tonkin added: “We haven’t really worked on anything different in how we approach and prepare for games, but just tried to stop the goals going in.

“We have conceded a few soft ones as late, so it was good to keep the clean sheet.

“We have worked really hard over the last couple of weeks maybe going back to basics a little bit, back to how we were at the start of the season, and hopefully with this point things will now start breaking for us.”

It was United’s first shut-out for ten games and sets them up nicely for a home match against North-ampton on Saturday.

Tonkin believes that the confidence that the U’s will take from the game can inspire them to go on another run.

“We have got a confident squad here, but we have been on a bad run and there’s a lot of positives we can take from this,” he commented.

“The point today was good, and we look to build on that next week.

“We need to get a good run going and really kick on to get back to being at least in the play-offs which is where we should be.”

Tonkin also came close to scoring his first Oxford goal with a second-half header that was cleared off the line.

He was 50-1 to score the first goal of the game.

“I was really close to scoring today, with the one that was cleared off the line,” he said. “And if I am 50-1, I will have to start sneaking up for a few more corners!”