DES Buckingham said Oxford United’s 5-0 humbling at the home of Bolton Wanderers was ‘not a true representation’ of his side.

The U’s were outclassed in every department, as five different scorers found the net for the Trotters.

Wing backs Nathanael Ogbeta and Josh Dacres-Cogley scored in the first half, before George Thomason, Aaron Collins and Josh Sheehan all netted within a blistering 10-minute spell in the second period.

United head coach Buckingham said: “It’s certainly not something I saw or felt coming. We’ve turned up on an evening where Bolton have played extremely well and we’ve played very poorly.

“When you come to teams like this, and they start the game that way, we need to at least match that, and we’ve not done that.

“We’ll get to the bottom of it for sure. It’s not one where I want jump to things right now.

“We’ll take the emotions out of things because the scoreline is not a true representation of who we are and what we are.

“We’ll make sure we delve very deep into it, to make sure it doesn’t happen again, and that we get ourselves well for Saturday.”

Asked if he was embarrassed by the scoreline, Buckingham responded: “If you get beaten anywhere 5-0 it’s an embarrassment. It’s a difficult one to take, and even more so because you’re on the TV and you’re trying to showcase what we do and how we do it.

“We weren’t able to do that for any part of the game. I thought they were better across every area, and we made it very easy for them at times.

“I’ll take responsibility for how we set the team up, and what we do, but we need to make sure we get everything right for the remaining games.”

He added: “The early goal kills you, and the second goal sways the game. The second goal is a pretty big mix-up, and puts them in control.

“From that moment, it becomes difficult. We tried making a change at half-time, and it didn’t quite work, and it didn’t have the effect that we wanted it to have. They hit their third and it became a very easy game for Bolton.

“This has to be a one-off. It’s about making sure we shake that off and shake it off pretty quickly.

“Those remaining games become even more important now. We came here with a view to try and win the game, or at least get a point. It puts more emphasis on the games coming up.

“We speak pretty openly in private. When things go well, the players get credit, and when things don’t go well, that’s on me.

“It’s making sure now that when we get back on that training pitch on Thursday, the players report back in and are ready to work very hard, to make sure we get Saturday right.”