Fleetwood boss Simon Grayson rues more mistakes and free gifts to opponents after defeat at Oxford

The head coach had wanted to prove his team's critics wrong at Oxford United on Tuesday, but instead a U's squad missing 13 players because of a Covid outbeak added to Fleetwood' s problems by winning 3-1.

Grayson said of Town's latest defeat: “Individuals keep making mistakes and that’s been the case for us. We can’t keep gifting the opposition opportunities to win the game.

“No matter who you’re playing, if you’re 2-0 down after 10 minutes it’s an upwards task.

“We just keep making mistakes and we can’t keep doing that. We keep getting punished.

"We’ve just said it in the changing room - we’ve kept one clean sheet all season, we should be better.

“There’s individual pride, understanding your roles and responsibilities because we work hard on the training pitch.

“I’ll never question the players’ attitude, but their decision-making and some of the poor defending as a team is not good enough and we have to eradicate that. It’s tough for us.”

It was a fifth defeat on the spin in all competitions and a seventh loss in eight winless games for the League One strugglers.

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