ROB Dickie said Oxford United paid the price for poor defending as Bradford City ended their unbeaten run.

Karl Robinson’s side had headed into the Sky Bet League One fixture high in confidence after climbing out of the relegation zone for the first time this season last weekend.

But they left Valley Parade frustrated as a 2-0 defeat ended their nine-match undefeated record.

A big part of their strong run had been a defensive resilience which had earned the U’s eight clean sheets in their previous 11 games.

But United endured a difficult day dealing with set-pieces and crosses, conceding two goals in three first-half minutes with David Ball and Jack Payne finding the net.

The visitors were still in the game but, with a bumper crowd of more than 19,000 on their side, the Bantams earned their first win in 11 games.

Centre back Dickie knows United failed to hit the heights they have reached over the past six weeks.

He said: “They’re not the standards we set ourselves.

“We need to put that behind us and not let that happen again.

“It was just one of those situations where you’re away at Bradford and you can’t give them a sniff and we did.

“We should be winning the first and second balls at set-pieces and we didn’t.

“It was a good atmosphere to play in front of, but it’s just a shame we didn’t come away with anything.”

United dominated the opening 25 minutes to silence the home supporters.

But Bradford boss David Hopkin felt his side’s quickfire goals were crucial.

He said: “I asked the players to make sure the crowd got with us.

“We scored two goals quite close to each other which settled us down.

“We managed the game superbly.”