Matt Bloomfield rues missed chances as Oxford defeat at Derby brings drop closer

Oxford manager Matt Bloomfield rued his relegation-threatened side’s wasteful finishing after a damaging 1-0 defeat at Derby.

Bloomfield saw his side squander three second-half chances that could have earned Oxford at least a share of the spoils at Pride Park.

Derby showed how to finish in the 22nd minute when Jaydon Banel broke from inside his own half and held off two defenders before finding the bottom left corner from the edge of the box.

Oxford offered little until after the interval when they had big chances but could not make them count.

Myles Peart-Harris went clear in the 56th minute but was denied by Jacob Widell Zetterstrom and Yunus Konak sliced well wide in the 69th minute.

The visitors had one more chance deep in stoppage time when Aidomo Emakhu whipped in a low cross but Mark Harris could not turn it home at the near post.

The defeat edges Oxford closer to relegation from the Championship.

Bloomfield admitted: “I’ve got a mixture of emotions. Disappointment at our performance first half and frustration that we haven’t walked away with something at the end of the game.

“We’ve created two or three really good opportunities against a really good team who are pushing for a play-off position so it was always going to be a tough game for us.

“But we’ve created some really good chances and I’m really frustrated that we haven’t taken one of them.

“No team in our position is going to create loads and loads of chances so when they come around you’ve to take them.

“In recent games we’ve been taking them but today, disappointingly, we didn’t take one and we’ve had some real clear-cut chances.

“In terms of the reaction in the second half I thought fair play to the boys, they left everything out there and we took a very good team to the wire.

“It leaves us in a position where we still have games to win and points to put on the board. Today wasn’t safety or relegation, we have to recover and we need to be better in the first half on Tuesday than we were today.”

Derby head coach John Eustace was delighted with the win and the progress of Banel.

“It’s a brilliant win against a really difficult opponent who make it very hard for you to break them down and I thought we played some really good football.

“We could have been better in the final third but overall delighted with three points. When you look at the team they put out, they’ve had a lot of draws and I think only two defeats in 10 so they’re difficult to play against.”

“In those kind of games you need that bit of magic, that moment of quality and Jaydon certainly brought that.

“He’s a big player for us now, he stood up today. I thought it was a great learning experience for him away at Southampton last week and he’s come back with the winning goal today. His work rate was very good so I’m delighted there’s been good progression there.

“I think what let us down a little bit today was the decision making. We got into some really good areas and the final pass wasn’t good enough.”