MICHAEL Appleton apologised to Oxford United’s huge travelling support after his side turned in a poor performance to lose 2-1 at lowly Coventry City last night.

More than 2,100 away fans made the journey, for what was the first meeting of the teams since 1988.

They watched an error-strewn performance from United which was a long way short of expectations, particularly in the first half.

Ben Stevenson opened the scoring with a brilliant strike, but the U’s shot themselves in the foot just before the break when Marvin Sordell was gifted the simplest of goals.

Although the visitors improved in the second half, their goal came from Dan Crowley in stoppage time when it was too late.

Appleton hailed the away fans, who were vocal all night, and bemoaned his side’s inability to live up to the superb backing.

“The supporters were fantastic and unbelievable,” the head coach said.

“My apologies go out to all of them on behalf of the players and the staff.

“Our standards are much higher than we set in the first half and although we were much improved in the second half, the damage was done.”

He added: “There is all the stuff you talk about when you go away – be solid, make sure you’re aggressive and competitive – but we just stood off them. I didn’t like what I saw.”

The key moment was the second goal, when Phil Edwards headed beyond goalkeeper Simon Eastwood, who had come out to gather a pass.

Appleton said: “It’s just a lack of communication.

“They put the ball into an area where they asked us a question and we’ve come up with the wrong answers.

“It looked like Phil was pointing where he was going to play the ball back, but it’s easy for me to stand here – in real time it’s very difficult.”

Crowley came off the bench and the Arsenal loanee was in the right place to score when Chris Maguire’s cross deflected into his path.

It was the first league goal of his career and came in the city in which he grew up, but the result took away any individual satisfaction from the strike.

He said: “It means nothing when you don’t get the win. We’re gutted.

“Everyone’s disappointed with their performance because we weren’t good enough.

“Hopefully we can put it right on Saturday (at Port Vale).”