SIMON Eastwood felt Oxford United’s body language needed to improve after they slumped to defeat against Sunderland.

On an afternoon at the Kassam Stadium where the hosts lacked their usual fluency in possession, simple mistakes proved contagious.

At times they were accompanied by protests from teammates, which was a subject for discussion in the changing room after the game.

Karl Robinson: Oxford United's display against Sunderland was unacceptable

Eastwood said: “We’re a team and we’ll have games that don’t go right.

“We don’t want to be throwing arms in the air and blaming each other on the pitch.

“I think somebody knows if they’ve done something wrong, so I don’t think that’s necessary.

“A couple of lads have been doing that, which has been pointed out. It’s about sticking together.”

The goalkeeper, who was making his 200th start, was beaten by strikes from Luke O’Nien and Lynden Gooch after the break.

While the latter effort came just eight minutes from time, Eastwood admitted United rarely looked like taking anything from the game after falling behind two minutes into the second half.

He said: “It’s very disappointing that we lost in the way we did.

“I don’t think we created much and if we’re being honest we never looked like scoring.

“They’re always going to be tight games against Sunderland.

“Some might say we haven’t got it in us as a defensive unit and we need to get a bit more angry and a bit more savvy at the back and be a bit stronger.

“I thought we weathered it in the first half, but in the second half they got a bit of luck with the deflection.

“When you concede so early and you don’t look like scoring it’s always hard to get back in the game.”