Oxford United 2 Burton Albion 2

Paul Peschisolido was honest enough to admit he didn’t think that the penalty that triggered Burton’s fightback was clear cut, but was happy to take the point.

And so the Albion manager should be. Oxford blew this one and the players and coaching staff knew it when they came out to face the media at the end.

Boss Chris Wilder sent out assistant Mickey Lewis to face the music after locking the dressing room door for the best part of an hour. Presumably he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to keep a lid on his emotions, although I suspect he wasn’t quite so restrained once he’d turned the key in the lock!

Oxford looked classy until the penalty and then inexplicably seemed to lose self-belief and focus.

Whether Liam Davis actually took out winger Jacques Maghoma in the box or not in the 54th minute is a bit of a mute point because they were in so much control at that point that they should have shrugged it off and continued to dominate.

For the record I felt it was merely a coming together of the two players and neither should have been penalised, but I was at the far end of the stadium and so I’ll admit I couldn’t be totally sure.

As it was, they seemed to sit back and once Justin Richards had converted the spot kick and then added a deflected second from close range in the 66th minute, it looked as though the only winners would be the visitors.

In fact, when I spoke to him afterwards, Richards was kicking himself for not netting his hat trick two minutes after pulling Burton level.

Richards also revealed how much the hostility shown towards him by the home support really only served to spur him on. Richards spent a brief loan spell with Oxford a couple of years ago and the chants of “reject” did more to galvanise him than anything.

As an aside, I wonder sometimes whether there’s any point in goading opposition players as it always seems to backfire. Surely a gentle ripple of applause and a cry of “jolly well played sir” each time they get the ball is more likely to confuse them and put them off!

The scrap between Burton strikers Richards, Calvin Zola and Us central defensive duo was an interesting side show in this game and Richards told me afterwards that Dubes was still “a class act” and he’d “never had to work so hard”.

He told me that Duberry had “bought a foul” at one point in the game and then winked slyly at the Burton man. Richards then “bought one back” and told Duberry it was “now 1-1”.

Richards also said something quite interesting about Oxford. He said that they were a great footballing side and in the first half had been the best he had come up against for a while, but he also said they were a very quiet team and wondered whether they needed someone to bark out the orders on the pitch.

I put this to midfielder Peter Leven when he and Alfie Potter were released from the dressing room, dressing down and he admitted that while Oxford had “a nice group of lads and some very good footballers” they needed to start getting angry with each other on the pitch when it called for it.

Peter drew parallels with his time at MK Dons last season and said that there were times there when, again, it would have been useful to have had someone on the pitch who ruffled a few feathers. I guess it is better to identify this problem now and address it rather than work it out next February.

Ultimately this was a disappointing result for Oxford and Peschisolido said he didn’t think that too many sides would visit the Kassam this season and walk away with all three points. For that reason, he was more than happy with the point.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Oxford DID play some smashing football, look like they could be on the verge of really clicking and, let’s face it, every team is going to learn harsh lessons about themselves as the season wears on.