KARL Robinson felt Oxford United received a compliment from Gillingham in the form of the Priestfield pitch.

The head coach thought the hosts had allowed the grass to grow and then not watered it in a bid to disrupt the U’s passing style.

Read also: Oxford United's Tariqe Fosu pleased with vital contribution at Gillingham

He said: “It’s not very often teams do what happened today to us with the pitch.

“That’s the way football is – I said to the players what a wonderful testament to us that is.

“It certainly helped (Gillingham) when Nathan (Holland) went through in the first half and the ball bobbled.

“Then the same with Marcus (Browne), they were saying they couldn’t get the ball out of their feet.

“It was very dry early on, which stopped us from playing, but I think we still tried to play and stuck to our guns.

“I thought we looked a good team and strong in certain areas.”

United had taken the lead thanks to Tariqe Fosu’s tenth goal of the season.

But their slim half-time advantage was wiped out by Olly Lee’s penalty, given for Alex Gorrin’s foul on Brandon Hanlan.

Robinson had no complaints about the decision and believes it is an area the Spanish midfielder needs to improve.

He said: “As much as I love him for what he does in the middle of the pitch, you have to understand where you are.

“You can’t be the same everywhere.

“I think he just needs to learn where he is sometimes and be calm in situations.

“Everyone knows what I think of him, he’s honest, hard-working and he just made a slight error of judgement where he went for something he shouldn’t have.”

While the U’s are still waiting for their first maximum points haul of 2020, Robinson saw little wrong in the display against a side who are now eight league games unbeaten.

He said: “There wasn’t much more you could put into that.

“It was a very good away performance.

“I can remember three or four opportunities in the second half where we had the upper hand, but it wasn’t to be.”