DEREK Fazackerley felt recent setbacks at the Kassam Stadium contributed to Oxford United slipping to another home defeat against Bristol Rovers.

Joe Rothwell provided a dream start by opening the scoring in the second minute, but from then on the visitors steadily took control and won 2-1 thanks to second-half goals from Kyle Bennett and Ellis Harrison.

With United’s search for a new manager ongoing, all eyes were on the directors’ box for any candidates.

While none could be seen, one man in attendance was Sumrith Thanakarnjanasuth, the Thai businessman long linked with fronting a group looking to invest in the club.

Two people linked with the job will not be the next manager, however.

Simon Grayson was yesterday appointed boss at Sky Bet League One rivals Bradford City, while the Sky Sports sources who reported that Sol Campbell had spoken to United are known to be wide of the mark.

Whoever is in charge going forward, finding a solution to the U’s issues at home will be a priority.

There have been five defeats in the last eight games, including a 7-0 thumping by Wigan Athletic and the 2-1 loss to rock bottom Bury which saw Pep Clotet fired as manager.

Caretaker boss Fazackerley believed a tension in the air did not help, but admitted the U’s simply had to have higher standards.

He said: “There’s a little bit of nervousness about the players at the moment, certainly when they’re playing here.

“Once or twice recently we’ve suffered poor results and the crowd of course become a little bit edgy if you’re not playing the type of football they expect to see.

“That certainly affected one or two of the players.

“But we have to be better than that, there’s no doubt about it.

“We can’t look for excuses, we’ve got to take responsibility.”

Fazackerley is not the first man in charge of United to despair at a flat performance coming in front of an above average home crowd.

Their mid-table position in Sky Bet League One should not cause any extra pressure, but such a result coming on the back of a terrific win at Charlton a week earlier summed up the campaign as a whole.

Fazackerley said: “The one thing that is consistent is our inconsistency.

“That’s disappointing of course, because on the back of a great result last week you want to put in a performance in front of your own fans, particularly when there are 8,500 here.

“You want to perform for them and after a bright start we didn’t manage to do that.

“I don’t know whether we expected to defend our 18-yard box for 90 minutes, but that’s not going to happen.

“You’ve got to show more composure to win a game of football and hopefully we’ll learn from it.

“If we don’t learn from it, then it will be difficult.”