JOHN Mousinho admitted his penalty was riskier than originally intended as his 160-game goal drought was ended in emphatic style.

Oxford United beat Rochdale 2-1, but were trailing just after the hour mark when Joe Rothwell was fouled in the box and with James Henry not in the squad, the skipper stepped up.

Mousinho took penalties earlier in his career but had not converted from the spot since 2011 – and his last goal of any description was almost four years ago.

But he despatched a thunderous effort which gave goalkeeper Josh Lillis no chance.

He said: “My plan was to put a bit of power behind it.

“The goalkeeper was shouting at the time ‘all he’s going to do is blast it’.

“I thought ‘you’re right mate’, so I just tried to change the angle slightly.

“It was probably slightly closer to the top corner than I thought it was going to be, but it worked out really well.

“I thought there was no point trying to nurse something in the corner and risk the wrath of everybody in Oxford.”

United needed a point to be sure of guaranteeing their Sky Bet League One safety, so the stakes were high.

Mousinho said: “Obviously at the time we didn’t know any other results and with us being 1-0 down it would have been pretty disastrous for us to lose the game.

“With everything we’ve been through this season I’m not going to lie and say I didn’t feel any pressure.

“But sometimes the pressure is pretty good to focus you and I had time to take a couple of deep breaths and focus on where I wanted to put it.

“I’m not paid to score goals, but it (the barren run) definitely played in the back of my mind, so it was really nice to find the net.”