'The best I've seen all season' - Oxford boss Karl Robinson praises Doncaster Rovers after his side's defeat

Goals from Jon Taylor, Fejiri Okenabirhie and Taylor Richards helped Rovers to a 3-2 win despite being largely second best for much of the game.

And Robinson was clear that he thought the best team on the day came out on the losing end, as Oxford saw their nine match winning run ended, in the main courtesy of an excellent performance from the Rovers defence.

“I think that is the best defending I’ve seen all season,” he said.

“The two centre backs threw their bodies in front of everything.

“Maybe if we did that for their third goal it would have been a different story.

“But the best team certainly lost today.

The major question asked of Oxford during their exceptional run of form was over the fact they had not beaten one of League One’s leading sides.

But Robinson feels the doubts are not valid given how well United performed against a Rovers side that have now won nine of their last ten league matches.

“People have said we’ve not beaten a team that is up there,” he said. “That’s an easy shout.

“That wasn’t a team who haven’t played against a team that is up there. That’s a team that was unlucky.

“As much as everyone is raving over the quality of the opposition, I don’t think you saw anything other than individual brilliance from them at several stages.”

Overall, Robinson felt the game was a great advert for League One, with two sides determined to play football.

He said: “Darren is a top, top man and I’ve got total respect for him, his staff. This is a good football club and they play the right way as well.

“If you’d watched this from afar or not knowing what level this was at you’d have been incredibly impressed. It was a tremendous testament to our level when you get a game of as high a quality as that.

“Our players played a massive role.”

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