adminGary Rowett said he felt ‘frustrated’ after Oxford United went toe to toe with Middlesbrough in Saturday’s 1-1 draw.
Winger Tyler Goodrham returned to the starting XI after being left out of the last five Championship squads entirely and having not begun a match since August.
U’s boss Rowett assessed the 22-year-old and his side’s overall performance against the team placed second in the Championship.
“Tyler’s worked really hard off the pitch,” the 51-year-old revealed.
“He’s come into the Championship, been fantastic early on in the Championship and then maybe the speed and the pace of the Championship, we’ve seen it with some of our players coming from different leagues, sometimes just catches you up a little bit and then you’ve got to take a step back to then go again.
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“I thought he performed really well.”
The draw with Boro was not the first time that Oxford have troubled one of the promotion-chasing sides in the division.
“When you piece that together with quite a number of the games this season against teams like Leicester, Coventry, Millwall, we’ve gone toe to toe with those teams,” Rowett continued.
“In some ways, I’m really proud of the team again. I’m proud of the effort, the way we’ve gone about the game.
“I felt second half when we conceded the goal, which was incredibly disappointing when you look at the goal, the way they played through us from a throw in this side. That’s us allowing them to play through us rather than them doing anything amazing to get there and I think that’s really frustrating.
“Other than that I thought we defended fantastically well around the edge of the box
“I thought the changes made a difference. We really looked like the team in the ascendancy. It was a little bit like the Coventry second half where we looked like we’d got the momentum, we’re on the front foot, we’re getting into some areas without maybe creating as many chances as we want.
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“It’s funny in the Championship isn’t it? If you’d have said when we first came into the Championship that we would be going toe to toe with a team like Middlesbrough who were second in the league and be disappointed that we haven’t won the game, you would feel like that was a lofty statement to make.
“But we haven’t won the game and it’s another game where a point feels like you’re rightly frustrated.
“It’s how do you found that extra little bit easily? I just don’t think it’s easy to find. We’ve just got to hope that one or two players step up in those moments, or we can keep trying to improve or we can start keeping a few more clean sheets and that’s our challenge.”
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