Status quo away from home remains the same for North End as Hecky and McCall fail to secure success at Oxford

Before the game the "Hecky and Stuart McCall" song was being belted out in a buoyant mood of anticipation by our fans in the coach car park as they made their way over to the away section of the stadium.

Unfortunately, to sum up my mood at the end of the game, it would have been more appropriate of me to use the lyrics of another Status Quo song "Roll Over Lay Down" because it certainly felt that it was "a long way where I'd been" on my journey home from my first ever visit to the Kassam Stadium.

After our win over Luton Town and the midweek demolition of Harrogate in the Carabao Cup, I was hoping that Hecky and McCall could continue their construction of our team by putting down building blocks of an even more sturdy structure with a first away league win at newly promoted Oxford.

It looked like my wishes had been granted when it all began so well for us as Emil Riis put our cement mixer into full throttle by firing the ball into the top corner of the net from close range after only three minutes

Recently our away goals have been a rarity but our first league away goal after a barren run of six matches on the road without one certainly sent our travelling fans delirious.

At this point of the proceedings we seemed to be well in control of the game.

However, how our performance went so downhill after the home side scored with their first meaningful attack is a mystery even Oxford's famous fictional detective Chief Inspector Endeavour Morse would struggle to solve.

After the equalising goal our confidence seemed to drain a little as the home side gradually grew into the game. As the match progressed for me watching it felt not too dissimilar to ones I'd seen on some of our recent away trips.

The two further goals the home side scored to win the game and make it five straight away league losses could perhaps of been better defended but all things considered overall the home side were the better team and deserved what was in the end a comfortable victory for them.

During the closing stages of the game the home crowd gleefully reminded us of our failure to to capitalise on our early advantage by repeatedly chanting"1-0 and you messed it up "

The number one single in the UK Top 40 when we last visited these parts in February 2000 was Gabrielle's "Rise". This game was in complete contrast to the 4-0 win we achieved on that night at the old Manor Ground .On evidence of this display we will not be ready to rise up to the top of the table for a while .

The performance illustrated the enormous size of the task the new management duo face in turning around our team’s fortunes.