MORECAMBE boss Jim Bentley felt Oxford United were handed the chance to take three points on Saturday by Shaun Miller's red card.

The game was in the balance at 1-1 when, on 69 minutes, Miller launched into a dangerous lunge on Joe Skarz, who was fortunate to escape without injury.

United went on to take full advantage, netting three times in the next 11 minutes to claim a win which kept them firmly in Sky Bet League Two's automatic promotion places.

Bentley also lost two players to injury during the game and was hugely disappointed his side had a role in their own demise.

He said: "Everything’s going against us. I’m not using that as an excuse, it’s football, it happens.

"It’s partly down to ourselves. Today it was a lack of discipline from Shaun Miller - he’s not that type of player.

"We just looked like we were building momentum and we were getting on top but once we went down to 10 men it was always going to be difficult against a very, very good side."

United's second and third goals came from Callum O'Dowda corners, which led to John Lundstram and Danny Hylton finding the net.

It was a familiar story for Morecambe and Bentley argued neither of them could be put down to the sending off.

He said: "I can understand the fourth goal where they’ve worked the extra man really well but the killer goals are the second and third ones.

"You can’t blame that on being down to 10 men when everyone’s got a job to do from set plays.

"It comes down to an individual battle and not letting your man score and that’s been our Achilles heel this year."