Michael Appleton took little consolation from the prospect of an FA Cup replay after seeing Oxford United again unable to make the most of their opportunities in a 2-2 draw.

The U’s looked to be heading through after coming from behind in the second round tie against Tranmere Rovers to lead 2-1, thanks to Tyrone Barnett’s brace.

But after an effort from Danny Hylton was controversially disallowed for offside, Jason Koumas struck to set up a replay next week.

It stretched United’s unbeaten run to five games, but the last three have been draws where Appleton felt they had done enough to win.

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The United head coach said: “I’m very frustrated, similar to last week (1-1 at Cheltenham Town).

“You’ve got to be honest with yourself, sometimes you draw a game and you think ‘we’ve done alright to draw that’.

“I can only think of one time this season where we were happy to take a point and that was at Exeter.”

He added: “It’s just disappointing to draw a game where the opposition have three shots and score two.

“We had at least eight or nine on target, the keeper had another good day, but Ty got his two goals and probably feels he should’ve scored two or three more.”

United’s strong second half display came after a limp showing in the opening 45 minutes.

It allowed Cole Stockton to open the scoring and only an awful miss from Shamir Fenelon prevented Rovers from being 2-0 up at the break.

Appleton resisted the urge to make changes during half-time and instead reminded the players of what was expected, which had the desired effect.

He said: “There were a couple of players I felt were jogging in the first half and I wanted to see them running.

“When people have done well for you over a period of time you’ve got to put that trust in them to do something different.

“No two 45 minutes are rarely the same in any game and we were naturally disappointed because it wasn’t quite happening in the first half, but we weren’t going to beat ourselves up about it.

“I wasn’t going to rant and rave, it was just being calculated and making sure the right messages go across.”

He added: “At least we are in the hat and we get an opportunity to see who we might come up against if we were to get through the replay.”

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