Oxford boss Karl Robinson admitted concern over his three injured players took some of the gloss of the 1-0 win over Crewe at the Kassam Stadium.

Nathan Holland, Ryan Williams and Billy Bodin all came off the pitch with knocks as the U’s continued their unbeaten start to the League One campaign.

James Henry’s first-half penalty secured a hard-earned victory over David Artell’s team.

Robinson said: “We’ll just have to wait and see with the injuries. I think we’ve got a lot of patching up to do to ensure we’ve got enough to put a team out at the weekend because we already had a few out injured.

“But it’s three points and that’s the important thing, and my players gave everything.

“We played games like this last season where the opposition only had one real chance.

“We weren’t great, but then we had a lot of players who were struggling.

“I think we knew after an hour that we weren’t going to be good, and then it was a question of just rolling up our sleeves and fighting for each other.

“And we were quite comfortable at the back against a team that’s going through a massive transition.

“My midfield three were immense. Others around them were a bit short and know they can do better.

“But for us to sit on seven points, it’s a wonderful start. I’m over the moon with the players, their effort and their desire.

“And in four league and cup games so far we haven’t conceded from open play to an opposition scorer. We’ve just conceded two penalties and an own goal, so that’s some achievement.”

Crewe had been without four players through a norovirus.

Boss Artell said: “It’s been a difficult few weeks, and the last 48 hours have been no different.

“Including members of staff we’ve had six hit by this. You get over Covid-19 and think that’s it, and then along comes another virus!

“To be honest, the illness situation makes us stronger and galvanises us.”

Artell’s side remain winless in the league this season but he felt they gave a much improved showing from Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Portsmouth.

He said: “Last Saturday we didn’t deserve to get anything out of the game and Portsmouth were far better than us.

“But tonight I thought we did deserve to get something. We didn’t deserve to lose, and it was a much better performance. Yes, maybe Oxford were not as good as Portsmouth on the day, but we were so much better.

“If we keep improving and when we get better relations and understanding between the players, we’ll be fine and be a match for anyone.

“I never thought Oxford would score again after the penalty.

“But playing better is one thing, we’ve got to make sure we turn it into results.”