KARL Robinson is optimistic Oxford United will find the clinical edge that has eluded them so far this month.

The U’s have not scored since Mark Sykes put them 1-0 up at AFC Wimbledon on September 4, meaning they have played four hours of football since their last goal.

It has seen United pick up just one point from the games against Wimbledon, Wycombe Wanderers and Cheltenham Town, despite having the majority of possession in all three.

The U’s had several chances they did not take at Plough Lane, but created fewer opportunities in their two most recent matches.

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And Robinson insists the statistics show his side are doing the right things until they reach the final third.

“It will click, I’m confident of that,” the U's head coach said.

“We’re one of the highest xG (expected goals) teams in the league, we’re the highest passers into the opposition box in the league.

“That is dominance of the football and chances created.

“We get into the opposition’s box in control of the football more than anybody else. We’re just not picking the right pass at this moment in time.

“They’re the things that will click. The tentativeness in some of our play, that’ll come good.”

There are various ways to calculate expected goals, which works out how many times a team should score based on the quality of chances they create.

This leads to different interpretations of how many times United should have found the net.

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However, there seems to be a consensus that the U’s should have scored more than their nine goals - the 15th-highest in Sky Bet League One, like their overall position.

Popular websites Football XG, Experimental 3-6-1 and footystats.org have United fourth, fifth and eighth respectively in their xG tables for the division.

The first two say the U’s should have scored 12.3 and 11.7 goals respectively, while the latter puts United on 1.35 per game – which equates to 10.8 for the campaign so far.

Interestingly, footystats has United fifth in its xG table for away teams, despite Robinson’s side taking just one point from four matches on the road this season.

Other statistics are harder to track down, but before the Wimbledon game there were figures circulated by another website, The Near Post, that had the U’s comfortably top of the charts for touches in the opposition box.

That may well have changed during a frustrating September and United will be desperate to get back on track against Gillingham on Saturday.