Karl Robinson hails Oxford’s defensive display against Peterborough

Oxford boss Karl Robinson was delighted by his team’s defensive display as they chalked up a second successive clean sheet with their late 1-0 victory over Peterborough.

Cameron Brannagan’s 88th-minute free-kick gave the U’s a second successive single-goal win over Posh – and earned a home tie in the Carabao Cup second round against Championship side Millwall.

Robinson admitted: “I don’t think we were great, and I said that to the players.

“Peterborough were strong and they didn’t make as many changes as we had expected them to.

“We made seven changes but our back four were immense and looked very strong.

“I was very happy with the defensive qualities of the team and the way we stuck at it.

“The beauty about tonight for me is that everything’s got answered that I had questions about.

“The one sickener though is that Malachi Napa has a suspected broken leg after the foul on him.

“He is having tests in hospital and we just hope he’s OK. But he’s a tough kid and he’ll fight back.”

Peterborough manager Darren Ferguson thought his team were too careless too often.

The lively Ivan Toney gave Oxford a lot of problems, but could not find a way past U’s keeper Simon Eastwood.

Ferguson said: “We had more than enough chances to win that game. For long periods we were well on top.

“We just got a bit ponderous and sloppy.

“We spoke at half-time about playing it a bit quicker and I was much happier with our energy levels compared to the first half last Saturday.

“At the moment, though, nothing’s going for us. The goal typified our season.

“One lad slipped over and the ball’s gone through him.”