McEachran questions decision to play risky football late on at Oxford

Josh McEachran leads the discussions with referee Anthony Backhouse during the 1-0 defeat to Oxford United. The former Chelsea midfielder said the first half at the Kassam Stadium was one of Dons’ best performances of the season.

Playing out from the back in the latter stages against Oxford United was not the right thing to do, Josh McEachran admitted after they conceded late at the Kassam Stadium on Tuesday.

With the hosts pressing a high line, Dean Lewington’s risky ball to McEachran on the edge of the box saw the midfield dispossessed and Billy Bodin fire in the winnier with three minutes to go, blowing Dons’ chance of going back into the top two in League One despite both Rotherham and Wigan above them also dropping points.

Speaking after the game, McEachran said Dons’ game management let them down against Oxford and ultimately cost them a share of the spoils.

He said: “In the last five minutes, we shouldn't be looking to play the ball out like that, we should be looking to take the 0-0. We're very frustrated, but we cannot dwell on it, we've still got two massive games to go.

“We completely dominated the first half of the game, but the second half I cannot put my finger on what happened. We shot ourselves in the foot too many times.

“It's one of our best performances of the season in the first half. It came down to the small details and the quality. If we had gone in 2-0 up, we could have easily seen the game out but at 0-0, Oxford were going to change and come at us.

“It's more frustrating with other results but nothing has changed that much. We'll put this behind us, we won't make the same mistakes again.”

After suffering back-to-back defeat for the second time this season, Dons now have just two games remaining, and the fight for automatic promotion will rumble on into the final week.

Saturday sees Dons play at Stadium MK potentially for the final time of the season, and McEachran says the team cannot lose track of the job at hand.

He said: “We've lost two games in the last three days and we've not done that all season.

“It's a massive game against Morecambe who are fighting for their lives and we're fighting for the automatic places so we're looking forward to that. We cannot get too emotional now, we've got a massive job to do.”