JACK Payne admitted Oxford United’s defeat to Walsall was not good enough for a side with play-off ambitions.

The visitors at the Bescot Stadium created the lion’s share of the chances, but suffered a 2-1 defeat.

Walsall won by the same scoreline at the Kassam Stadium, meaning a quarter of their wins in Sky Bet League One this season have come against the U’s.

Pep Clotet’s side stayed tenth on an afternoon where only two sides above them won, but the gap to sixth place increased to five points.

Payne said: “You do expect to come to these places and get at least a draw, maybe a win, if you want to push for the play-offs.

“But there’s still plenty of games to go and we still believe.

“We’ll still give everything and hopefully we can make it.”

He added: “It’s a shame we haven’t got more out of the game.

“But at the end of the day they were more clinical than us, which is what let us down.

“There will be other days where we win games with a lot less chances.

“We are one of the highest scorers in the league, so there’s no doubt we will continue to score goals if the chances keep coming.”

With United 2-0 down, Payne was the first player to be substituted for Malachi Napa as Clotet looked for a way back into the game.

The Huddersfield Town loanee said: “It’s frustrating because I want to play, but at the same time I don’t have any sad feelings about it.

“The manager’s done it to improve the team and to be fair we had a lot of momentum towards the end and nearly got at least a point, so no complaints.”