Darren Moore insisted Sheffield Wednesday should have killed the game off before the Oxford penalty that left him frustrated.
League One promotion-chasers Wednesday are now six games without a win after the 1-1 draw. Barry Bannan scored a superb opener before Akin Famewo’s foul on Marcus Browne led to Cameron Brannagan’s equaliser.
“I didn’t think it was a penalty from where I was,” Moore said. “If anything it was Akin Famewo who was being impinged.”
Moore added: “I thought we did enough to win the game.
“The deciding factor for us was at the start of the second half, two saves Oxford’s keeper (Simon Eastwood) made from Mallik Wilks and Dennis Adeniran. Had one of those gone in I think it would have been too much for Oxford to get back into it.
“Obviously at 1-0 they feel they’re still in the game and you’re always sceptical because it only takes a second to score a goal. And the decision went against us.
“We ended up running out of steam. And they changed their system and went back to a five (at the back) and that just cancelled the game out. Both teams matched up shapes and cancelled each other out.”
The Owls, who were top of League One at the start of the day, dropped to third behind Plymouth and Ipswich.
This was a third successive draw for Liam Manning since he took charge at Oxford following Karl Robinson’s dismissal.
Manning said: “It’s a big point seeing the opposition we were playing against.
“But there’s an element of me feeling slightly disappointed it wasn’t more than that looking at the actual chances we created and the areas we got into – and the fact we should have had another penalty before the first one.
“But we continue being unbeaten which is really important.
“How we didn’t get a penalty for the foul on Stuart Findlay I don’t get. And the second one is a penalty, having seen it back.”
Bannon put Wednesday ahead with a brilliant curling effort from the edge of the box after 35 minutes.
But Browne was impeded by Famewo as both went for the ball in the box 20 minutes from time and referee Rebecca Welch pointed to the spot.
It gave Oxford a lifeline and Brannagan slammed in the penalty to give the Us a vital point in their bid to avoid the drop.
Manning said: “Cam has a cool head, nothing fazes him. I couldn’t feel more confident with him taking the penalty at that stage.”
