Burton boss Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was furious with his side’s sluggish start to the second half as they fell to a 2-1 defeat at Oxford – their sixth loss in seven games.

Albion players were slow to react when Kyle Joseph’s shot came back off the bar in the 48th minute and Cameron Brannagan shot home his sixth goal of the season to fire the home side in front.

Joseph added a second goal after 71 minutes and although Victor Adeboyejo pulled one back with a fine finish, the Brewers were unable to find a second goal.

Hasselbaink said: “It’s not allowed for them to score their first goal the way they did.

“Their players were just quicker to the ball than us – and that’s not acceptable.

“And for the second one he just walked through. We’re getting punished for not doing the basic stuff.”

Burton are now three points adrift at the bottom of League One with just one point and Hasselbaink knows he needs to strengthen.

He said: “I fancied us to score. The first half was not really an attractive game but for us it’s not about it being attractive. We needed to get a draw out of the game.

“We have to get back to basics, not think about ‘pretty’, and make it difficult for the opposition.

“You can’t get out of the dressing room at the start of the second half like we did. You need to be solid for the first 15 minutes.

“We have enough experience in the dressing room to come out better.

“I’m happy for Victor. He led the line really well and had a good game.

“But we need to get some people in because we can’t carry on with just one striker but the free agent market is very difficult.”

Oxford boss Karl Robinson was delighted with his youngsters as his injury-hit side made it successive league victories after their 2-1 success at Cheltenham the previous week.

Robinson was without half a dozen key players, the latest one being striker Matty Taylor who is sidelined for at least a month with a groin injury.

He said: “This will live longer in the memory for me than a lot of our scintillating performances.

“I am so pleased for the staff to find a way to put a team out and to get the three points.

“It’s a tremendous result and you have to give a lot of credit to the kids.

“Our two strikers were aged 20 and 18 and two or three others are 18 or 19.

“The players’ attitude was sensational – I’ve told them to take Monday off and to celebrate this win.

“There should be a special mention too for goalkeeper Simon Eastwood. His positioning was outstanding and I think he even got fingertips on Joe Powell’s free-kick against the bar.

“The first half was all about not conceding and then in the second half… well, I love attacking our home fans’ end. I have grown up – as a Liverpool fan – with that and it is amazing.

“We’ve had to put our youngsters in too soon really, give them longer in the first team than is ideal, but they are doing us proud.”