KARL Robinson believes Oxford United showed a gritty side at Accrington Stanley which he had not seen before.

While there was frustration the visitors could not win a game in which they had twice led, it could have been worse than a 2-2 draw.

Stanley had the better chances to win a fiery contest late on, but after seeing his team play some classy football in recent games, Robinson was encouraged to see his side show resilience.

The head coach said: “I wasn’t too sure we had that and I said that to the players at half-time.

“I was damned sure the second half was going to be a fight.

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“But the players conducted themselves wonderfully well. I have a different team to what I first thought.”

That does not mean Robinson was pleased with everything he saw.

He said: “I don’t think any of our players did well, even though we scored good goals.

“There were certain aspects which weren’t good enough for the quality we have in this team.

“I know there’s a lot of talent and on any given day we can beat anybody.

“This is a very good point, it’s one more than the embarrassing saga of last season (a 4-2 defeat at Accrington).

“Let’s turn it into a positive week moving forward.”

With several sides above them slipping up, the draw did lift United to ninth place in the Sky Bet League One table.

The gap to the top six was also narrowed, to three points.

Robinson said: “We’ve moved inside the top ten now and in a very healthy position.

“If we win next Saturday then with our goal difference we could find ourselves on the coattails of the

play-off positions.

“That’s got to be our objective.

“There’s a lot more to come and we have to make sure we find it.”