CHRISTIAN Ribeiro felt Oxford United lost out in a goalscoring lottery during the second half at Scunthorpe United.

There was little goalmouth action during a tight first half, but the game became stretched after the break.

Chances flowed at both ends – and Josh Morris grabbed the only goal of the game at the end of a quick counter-attack in the 82nd minute.

Ribeiro, who made 67 appearances for the Iron earlier in his career, knew the game was up for grabs.

He said: “Both sides had chances and when you let a game go end-to-end, it is a lottery who is going to score that goal.

“We threw everything at them and sometimes it’s how it is.

“They will come away feeling they deserved it from their defensive effort, but we’re disappointed we couldn’t quite get that goal.

“We gave it everything and sometimes football isn’t fair.

“It’s on a knife-edge and unfortunately it didn’t quite fall for us.

“We discussed it in the summer that if we’re ever going to lose a game then it will be exactly like that, teams will have to work so hard to beat us.

“Everyone gave absolutely everything.”

Morris’s strike ended a terrific defensive run for United, who had not conceded a league goal since a 1-0 defeat at Bradford City on Good Friday.

More than nine hours of football later, the rearguard was finally breached again by the winger’s precise finish.

Ribeiro said: “Sometimes other teams will produce good bits of play.

“We’re all playing against good players and sometimes they can put the ball in the net from 20 yards and there’s not much you can do about it.

“But if we can restrict teams to having only shots from there then we’ll have a chance this year.”