THE pressure of the situation facing Oxford United is having an impact on the playing style, according to Simon Eastwood.

Their latest outing was a twitchy goalless draw at home to fellow Sky Bet League One strugglers Oldham Athletic at the Kassam Stadium.

It did mean only a second clean sheet in 15 games for the goalkeeper.

But further forward United were hampered by a lack of composure in possession.

Eastwood said: “We might play a bit differently if we weren’t in this situation.

“The main thing is to try to get the three points to get over the line, then we might be playing a bit differently.

“I think overall it was an even game and you can see both teams are struggling near the bottom.

“There’s a lot of pressure on the players and the club to keep us where we are.

“That’s something we’ve taken on board and we’ll hopefully try to do.

“When we’re playing teams around us we definitely don’t want to lose.”

He added: “No-one can deny it, it’s been a very poor season from ourselves, nowhere near as good as last year.

“But hopefully we can put it to bed sooner rather than later and get the couple of wins we need.”

Both sides felt the officials missed big calls which could have altered the course of the game.

James Henry escaped two strong Oldham appeals for a penalty, while Wilfried Moimbe got away with a shirt-pull which might have earned him a second yellow card.

Eastwood said: “When there are big games I think the ref almost knows what’s riding on it for both clubs.

“You almost get the sense he will take the easy option. Maybe we got away with one, but hopefully we can look back and it will be a good point.”