DES Buckingham said Oxford United’s heavy defeat at home to Middlesbrough highlighted the ruthlessness of life in Sky Bet Championship.

United took the lead via Greg Leigh not long after the midway point of the first half, but three goals in eight minutes saw Boro take a commanding advantage into the break.

Emmanuel Latte Lath completed his hat-trick four minutes into the second period, and while Dane Scarlett provided brief hope of an unlikely comeback, Boro hit two more in the closing stages to record a convincing 6-2 victory.

U’s head coach Buckingham said: “It shows the ruthlessness that this league certainly has. They were very clinical in their finishing and were the better team for the majority of that game.

“We were in a good game for 30 or 35 minutes, and I thought we deserved to go one up, and then we had a 10-minute spell where they got the penalty, and then quickly got a second that put them in front, and ended it going into the half 3-1 up, and that shows how quick and clinical it can be.

“Even at 1-1, we had a wonderful chance with Mark Harris nearly going round the goalkeeper, and those moments change games.

“It’s a harsh reality of this league. We now need to quickly recoup and recover, and get ready for Tuesday, and we’ll certainly do that.”

He added: “We need to be better in certain moments. It’s a massive jump in quality, which we’re adapting to, but we’ve shown many a time, whether it’s last year or this, we’ll get knockbacks.

“That’s the first team that have really opened up that scoreline against us for a long, long time.

“If that was every week, I’d be very concerned, but we just need to go back to what we’re very good at, and what we have been good at, and we’ll certainly make sure we do that for Tuesday.

“We have to get on with it. We’ve seen the quality of this league. Don’t get me wrong, nobody wants to come in and see a scoreline like that at all, but we won’t dwell on it.

“If it was happening every week, I’d be very concerned. That’s the first time this year where we’ve walked away from a game and had that kind of scoreline at this level.

“We’ll make sure we correct what we need to correct, and make sure we stick to what we’re very good at, and make sure we go back to doing that over the whole game come Tuesday night.”