Oxford United manager Chris Wilder criticised his players' decision-making as they twice let slip a winning position in Saturday's 3-3 draw at Forest Green Rovers.

Although the point extended United's unbeaten away run to four games, it felt like a defeat as they had been 2-0 ahead in the first half, and then 3-2 up with 20 minutes to go.

Needing every win they can get to stand a chance of reaching the play-offs, the result left them deflated.

“It's a game that ultimately we should have won,” Wilder said.

“For five minutes just after we scored the second goal, we weren't professional enough to make the right decisions, opened the door and Forest Green took full advantage.”

The U's boss kept his team in the dressing room for half an hour after the final whistle, but he stressed there was no ranting and raving.

“There were no slanging matches, or finger-pointing,” he insisted.

“It's disappointing because we put ourselves in a great position.

“I'm sure if we'd managed to do the right things at the right time for ten minutes after going 2-0 up, we'd have won the game comfortably. That was the turning point.

“But my centre half didn't head it and tried to play in a poor position. We had two chances to clear it, and tried to play.

“We made poor decisions – and the ball lands in the back of our net, which gives the opposition a big lift and they're bang back in the game.

“The disappointing thing is that we were 2-0 up, and 3-2 up, and really should have seen the game out.

“I didn't think the players were great, they looked a bit leggy, and having quite a few changes disrupted us.

“I can't fault the players' effort, just their decision-making. We chased it a little bit and played too long.

“Haldane had the boy on toast and we never got the ball out to him – we kept going down the middle when we needed to go wide.

“Lewis destroyed their right back in the second half.

“We needed to be bright enough to get the ball out to him, but we weren’t.”

Yet Forest Green looked a very good side going forward, as they have proved by taking points off several of the promotion-chasers, and Wilder says Oxford will not know until the end of April whether it's two points dropped or one gained.

“For ten games now we've been excellent,” he said.

“There is going to be a time now when you're a little bit flat, or players feel a bit tired when they're playing to the standards that they have done.

“There's no room for error for us at the moment so ultimately we're disappointed. Can we afford to drop two points? No.

“We haven't won, but we've not got beat.

“The point maybe, at the end of the season, might get us into the play-offs.

“We won't know until what happens in the next ten games.”