MICHAEL Appleton rued a lack of quality on the ball as Oxford United’s 14-game unbeaten run was ended by a failure to break down ten-man Northampton Town in a 1-0 defeat at Sixfields.

A well-organised home side adapted well to losing Jason Taylor for an off-the-ball incident just before half-time.

Danny Hylton saw the resulting penalty saved and, despite the second half resembling an attack-versus-defence training session, United really struggled to create chances.

Appleton, whose side had ground out a 1-0 win at Bristol Rovers in the previous game, admitted they were not good enough in possession to break down the Cobblers.

He said: “I think it came down to us giving the ball away and our quality.

“If you’ve got a 30-yard pass from A to B and there’s no-one in between then you expect the players to make sure they get it right. For whatever reason our radar wasn’t on.

“It’s something we spoke about at half-time, for whatever reason we never passed the ball well enough.

“We just have to make sure it doesn’t become a recurring habit that we’re not doing enough or not being bright enough in the final third.”

He added: “For 14 games we have been very good and done enough in certain games to do what we had to do.

“We just fell a little bit short.”

With Kemar Roofe, United’s designated penalty-taker, out injured, Hylton took on the responsibility from 12 yards.

The forward had been stripped of the role in pre-season after failing to score for the third time in four attempts.

And after the poor record was extended by Adam Smith’s save, Appleton, who in the absence of Roofe left the job open to whoever felt confident, made it clear Hylton would not be taking another spot-kick.

“Absolutely not, no,” he said.

“He felt confident, he went and got the ball straight away and when you have someone who is in a very confident mood like he was you’ve got to go and back their judgement.”

The U’s boss also felt Northampton’s defensive resilience deserved credit, something echoed by his opposite number, ex-United manager Chris Wilder.

He said: “The longer the game went on the more comfortable we were that we were going to get a result.

“I think they had one shot on target and one shot off target in the second half, which is great credit to our organisation and discipline.

“It was a tight game but to play with ten men for 50 minutes was an outstanding effort.”