Jim Smith (pictured) was left cursing another game thrown away by Oxford United as 2007 got off to a miserable start.

Their 2-1 defeat at Exeter was compounded by a host of injuries which left the team decimated, and has got the U's manager wondering just who he can bring in to ease the current crisis.

United were unbeaten in their first 19 games of the season, but they have won just one out of nine since then.

The New Year's Day defeat came after Rob Duffy and Yemi Odubade were ruled out before kick-off with thigh injuries, and then Steve Basham and Phil Gilchrist collected knee and hamstring injuries during the match, which was played on a very muddy pitch.

Smith said: "Having all the forwards out after about 15 minutes, it was going to be difficult, but I thought we dominated the game again.

"They had two chances created by us, not be them, and we had numerous opportunities to hit the target and we never did.

"Once again it was another game we've thrown away."

Exeter's first goal was an own goal from Rufus Brevett after John Dempster was caught out, and their second came after Barry Quinn slipped - although Quinn was otherwise superb.

Smith said: "The players gave everything they'd got, maybe it wasn't good enough at times, but they were disappointing goals.

"Dempster was fast asleep and got done on a one-two, and it was a good ball across the box on the first goal, and Quinny made a silly mistake on the second goal, which he doesn't normally do.

"Other than that, they had one more shot over the whole 90 minutes.

"They put their bodies on the line, they got blocks after blocks - I think there were four penalties and we only got one. And the one we got probably wasn't one.

"The referee said with the penalty appeal in the first half 'oh, I thought it was one of your players' (who handled it). I mean . . . I think Exeter played in different shirts to us!"

Basham's injury was the last thing United wanted, but the wage cap dictates that they can't just go out and bring in two or three more players.

Smith said: "We've now got all our strikers out and we had to cobble a formation together.

"At the end of the day, it was poor finishing a lot of the time. I know Exeter got blocks in, but we should have been more clinical than just blasting it. And the ball's not running very kindly for us.

"The problem we've got, with the wage cap, is that no matter how many players you've got out injured, you can't move.

"We've got to decide whether we go for two lesser players for the same money, or one player for that money, unless we can get one or two out, which I would like to do. But that's going to be difficult.

"We are in a bad run, there's no doubt about it, but we are also having a load of bad luck.

"Maybe we had too much going our way early on in the season, but we're having unbelievable bad luck at the moment with all the four strikers out.

"The worrying thing is not scoring. We should have won all of our last three games.

"We should have scored, at a safe estimate, about eight goals this last week in our last three games.

"Today we had, maybe not in clear-cut chances, but in opportunities with goalmouth incidents where if we'd had people being braver, people being more clinical, we would have scored more goals."

With Dagenham & Redbridge drawing at Crawley, second-placed United are now a point behind the Daggers.

There are now just six points between United and a host of chasing clubs.

Meanwhile, Stevenage's highly-rated striker, George Boyd, has signed for Peterborough United for a Conference record transfer fee of £260,000.

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