Defender John Dempster believes our team need to stop conceding sloppy goals, following our 3-1 loss to Oxford United this afternoon.
 After going behind courtesy of Sean Riggâs strike on 12 minutes, our task was made even harder after Jamie McGuire received a red card for a strong challenge on Danny Rose.
Dempster had sympathy for McGuire and thought the midfielder was unlucky to see a straight red.Â
âI felt sorry for Jamie (McGuire). Heâs 100% committed to this football club,â said the defender.
âThere was a tackle to be won and both players went in for it. I think the reaction of the Oxford United players didnât help.
âJamieâs an honest player and at the end of the day, he wanted to win the tackle. Sometimes referees can be a bit too quick to produce red cards, without just giving a yellow.â
Dempster continued: âEarlier on in the season, we were receiving a lot of praise for keeping clean sheets and being strong defensively.Â
âThat was the whole team doing that, but at the moment and especially today, we are conceding sloppy goals, which as a group is not good enough.
âWeâre not going to pick a fault with the referee, blame the conditions or anything like that. Itâs not good enough and we need to improve.â
Meanwhile, the defender, who believes the Uâs will do well this term, has urged our players to âup their gameâ as we face promotion-chasing Fleetwood Town next Saturday.
He added: Â âI think Oxford will be right up there. They have some good players and have a top young manager.Â
âThey are an organised team and play some good football as shown today even though it was against 10 men.Â
âWe do expect to compete against them like we have against the top sides this year. Today we felt like we have let them off lightly.
âYou canât panic - if you win two games in a row then you could potentially be in the play-offs.
âWe will come in on Monday morning and look at putting things right because we are not where we should be at the moment and as a group we need to improve.â