Oxford manager blames an offside goal, a cruel deflection and some unkind bounces of the ball for defeat at the hands of Peterborough United

Robinson felt the opening goal of the game scored by Siriki Dembele should have been disallowed for offside. Dembele was wandering back from a clear offside position when home defender Josh Ruffels miscontrolled enabling the Posh forward to streak away and score.

The officials deemed Dembele was inactive when a forward pass from Louis Reed was played.

Robinson also bemoaned a deflected winning goal from Jack Taylor and regular unkind bounces of the ball.

But Robinson told the Oxford Mail: “The assistant referee said he wasn’t interfering

“He doesn’t have to make contact with Ruffs to be in play. He’s clearly close enough to be active.

“He made a run off Ruffs’ shoulder. The ball’s meant for him, which meant Ruffs has had to defend the ball.

“We’ve been done by an offside goal and a deflection. You’re left with a bitter taste in your mouth.

“I thought we were sloppy in the final third.

“We got into some areas and wasted opportunities when we could have done better.

“It’s infuriating, because it seems every time we go in the opposition’s box every bounce is going the wrong way for us.

“We played well, we gave a good account of ourselves.

“That’s that competition put to bed for another year and now it’s on to the league.”

Ferguson said: “I felt the officials were poor today for both sides.

“I haven’t seen the first goal back, but to the naked eye Siriki looked offside and Mark Tyler (goalkeeping coach) told me he was well off.

“That’s one that’s gone for us today.”