David Flitcroft bemoaned a series of refereeing decisions as Oxford United beat his in-form Bury at Gigg Lane.

The home side played the final 25 minutes with ten men after centre back Adam El-Abd picked up his second booking.

Flitcroft felt it was harsh from referee Kevin Johnson, who also awarded the visitors a penalty, and instead a red card should have been shown to United’s Alex MacDonald in the first half.

He said: “I certainly feel, and the players do, that there’s an injustice gone on.

  •  Latest United news:

Do you want alerts delivered straight to your phone via our WhatsApp service? Text NEWS or SPORT or NEWS AND SPORT, depending on which services you want, and your full name to 07767 417704. Save our number into your phone’s contacts as Oxford Mail WhatsApp and ensure you have WhatsApp installed.

“The Adam El-Abd one, it is a booking – the first one’s not, but the second one is.

“But the MacDonald tackle on Danny Mayor, it’s potentially a reckless tackle.

“He’s lunged, he’s gone down and if that’s the way you want to stop Danny Mayor, you should get punished for that and there wasn’t a booking for that.

“I’ve seen the incidents. I go to speak to the referee after 30 minutes and to be honest, it’s probably a pointless exercise because it never goes anywhere.”

Meanwhile, former Oxford United striker David Connolly has announced his retirement.

The 37-year-old, who scored four times in 16 appearances for the U’s while on loan from Portsmouth, decided to quit after discussions with AFC Wimbledon whom he joined from Pompey in January.

Connolly made more than 400 senior club appearances as well as being capped 41 times by the Republic of Ireland.