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Oxford United's old failing of defending poorly at set pieces came back to haunt them on Saturday when they crashed to their second home defeat of the season.

Striker Danny Carey-Bertram pounced twice at corners after the U's had been unable to deal with simple near-post headers.

The first goal came just moments before half-time, and was a hammer blow to the Oxford players' belief that they could win the game to register a fifth straight Conference victory.

You'd have thought they would have learned a lesson from that, but Carey-Bertram bagged an almost identical goal at another corner in the 58th minute, once more nodded on at the near post, with Eddie Anaclet again unable to clear the danger.

United, having looked so good in their previous home game, when they beat Stevenage Borough 2-0, were poor in the extreme going forward.

But supporters leaving the ground at the end were questioning whether manager Jim Smith had shot himself in the foot by hauling off 21-goal top scorer Rob Duffy with just 38 minutes gone.

Duffy had stupidly got himself booked, which means he faces a two-game ban for reaching ten yellow cards, and hadn't been great.

But he was still a lot better than the striker who came on to replace him, Marvin Robinson, who lacked any kind of sharpness and proved no danger to the visitors' defence.

The Forest Green Rovers players all looked as if they had taken up the generous odds of 5-1 against them pulling off a shock win, against a side who hammered them just over four months ago.

And their corner routine was effective and in the end, that was all they needed - along with some good organisation and strong defensive play.

Carey-Bertram's opener came moments before the break when he lashed in the loose ball after Chris Giles's powerful header from Simon Clist's flag-kick was blocked on the line by Anaclet.

And Carey-Bertram was in exactly the right place again 13 minutes into the second half when another Clist corner was flicked on at the near post by Mark Beesley.

Forest Green had only brought dark shorts with them so forced Oxford into wearing all yellow.

The U's almost scored inside ten seconds as, straight from the kick-off, Yemi Odubade broke through on the right side of the box, but a tackle from Darren Jones stopped him in his tracks with the ref ignoring Oxford's penalty appeals.

Beesley, playing just behind Carey-Bertram, twice worked good openings for himself.

He struck a 20-yard shot wide and a few minutes later teed himself up for a right-footed volley from distance, which went straight at goalkeeper Billy Turley.

Closing down well and marking tightly at the back, Rovers were looking very compact.

Oxford were finding it difficult to break through, but Ryan Robinson was called into action from Gavin Johnson's header at a free-kick, the keeper parrying the effort before a teammate hacked it clear.

He also saved a header by Anaclet from Andy Burgess's cross.

Duffy and Chris Giles were both shown the yellow card after a flare-up, following a push on the striker.

Why the centre forward should pick up a yellow card when he was the one who had been fouled, only he will know, but it seemed to be for dissent.

A few minutes later, Smith subbed him, possibly to save the striker from getting a red card.

Carey-Bertram should have scored moments before he opened the scoring when Beesley played him through, but Turley saved well with his feet.

Burgess went close to pulling a goal back for Oxford 15 minutes from time with a glancing header after Robinson nodded on Martin Foster's free-kick.

But Rovers held on comfortably in the end, albeit through surviving at least two further good penalty appeals.

One was for handball when, after excellent play by Danny Rose, Chris Hargreaves's shot deflected away for a corner. The second, when Mickey Corcoran had his legs taken from under him, looked more blatant.

Yet this time no-one could blame the ref. Oxford simply hadn't concentrated properly.

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