LIAM Manning was frustrated that the promising opening stages of Oxford United’s Carabao Cup exit were undone as Bristol City romped to a 5-1 win.

The U’s started brightly and had chances through Stanley Mills, Tyler Goodrham and Billy Bodin, before the Robins took the lead through Harry Cornick.

Speaking after the game, United head coach Manning rued those early missed opportunities and how the second half then unfolded after trailing 2-1 at the break.

Read our match report here

Manning said: “It’s a mixed bag right now in terms of not being pleased with the second half but at the same point, when you look at the game, we should be three up before they even score.

“How we set up the game plan, the lads executed it in the first half and I thought it was very good.

“We go in 2-1 down but not actually giving them too many opportunities, while missing three, four or five really good chances at the other end.

“There was some outbreaks of real quality and what you can’t do is give away terrible goals at crucial times.

“It gets to a little bit of a point where it becomes about damage limitation, you have to stay together and be hard to beat, and sometimes you have to sacrifice yourself for the team. They’re the little bits that we’ll speak about and look at.

“It’s a strange one because they put out an extremely strong side and we made some tweaks and changes, and there were some positives in there, but an extremely frustrating evening.”

Manning now wants to see a reaction from his side going into their first home game of the campaign against Carlisle United.

He said: “The biggest bit now is in terms of how you respond and I expect to see a reaction from a few at the weekend.

“When you come here against a difficult opposition, the scoreline makes it difficult to take, and we have to take the positives from it.

“We’ve got to make sure we respond right at the weekend and concentrate on the league.”

Manning added: “I understand it’s a new group being asked to do some slightly new things, which takes time.

“What you will find out when they come out the other side of it, they’ll be a hard team to beat and be able to win games in a way that I know the team is capable of.

“They’ve shown that already in flashes, now it’s about bringing it together.

“It doesn’t happen overnight, it does take a bit of a time.

“It’s about not getting too carried away, and not getting too high or too low, and making sure we respond correctly at the weekend.”