Assistant manager Nick Greenwood refused to blame goalkeeper Lee Hook after his second blunder in three games sent Eastbourne Borough on their way to a 3-0 defeat against Oxford United.

Hook allowed Adam Murray’s corner to curl straight into the net a minute before the break in atrocious conditions at Priory Lane.

It was a cruel blow for Borough who had performed admirably after choosing to play into a vicious, swirling wind in the first half.

The home side pressed for an equaliser in the second half but were exposed on the counter attack as goals from Simon Clist and Eddie Hutchinson gave the scoreline a misleading look.

Hook was also at fault for at least one of the goals in the 3-3 draw at Histon ten days ago and may come under pressure for his place from recent signing Michael Jordan.

Greenwood said: “Lee Hook was not the reason we lost the game. There are other things that we need to sort out more than our goalkeeper.

“He made a really good save from a similar corner earlier in the game but for the goal he made the decision to come for it too early and it cost him.

“It was incredibly difficult conditions for goalkeepers. We always ask him to be positive but he admitted at half-time that he came out too soon.”

Borough unveiled new signing Jack Jeffery before the game but the West Ham striker would hardly have relished the conditions that greeted him when he arrived at Priory Lane for the first time.

The pitch was in surprisingly good condition despite heavy rain during the day but a strong wind made life difficult for both sets of players.

Borough chose to play against the wind in the first half and it looked to have paid off as Oxford struggled to take advantage of the conditions.

The visitors were guilty of playing too many long balls which blew straight through to goalkeeper Hook while Borough were able to drop the ball in behind the defence knowing the wind would hold it up.

That tactic led to the first chance of the game in the 21st minute as the visitors were forced to hack a hopeful ball from Matt Crabb behind and from the resulting corner Ben Austin’s downward header was blocked on the line.

The closest Oxford came was a 45-yard free kick from Adam Chapman which flew just over and it looked like Borough would go in at the interval level.

Oxford managed to force another corner in the 44th minute and Murray, encouraged by an earlier attempt from the same side which Hook had unconvincingly punched clear, put them ahead with the kind of corner which will have the Borough keeper waking up in cold sweats for months.

It was a blow for Borough but 1-0 was not the worst score at half-time and they immediately set about proving what a factor the wind from the restart as they pushed for an equaliser.

Billy Turley twice had his palms stung in the opening 15 minutes of the second half, first tipping over a 30-yard Paul Armstrong free- kick and then pushing away a rasping drive from Crabb from the edge of the area.

Jeffery then had a chance to make himself an instant hero with the Priory Lane faithful when Crabb’s cross found him unmarked at the far post but he blazed his volley over the bar.

The danger was that Oxford would catch Borough on the break and that is exactly what happened in the 71st minute. It was the visitors’ first real foray into the Borough half but the counter attack was clinical in its execution as Murray helped the ball on to Clist to shoot inside the far post.

Borough lost all their momentum after that and only the woodwork saved them from a heavier defeat when James Constable crashed a shot against a post in the closing stages.

Hook was beaten again in injury time though and left himself open to more criticism as he raced off his line only to be beaten to the ball by Hutchinson, who slotted home from an acute angle.

Borough have now taken just one point from their last four games but boss Garry Wilson insists there is no reason to panic.

He said: “We have got to keep things in perspective as we’ve had some very difficult games recently.

“Our aim against the bigger clubs was to nick points off them if we could but the most important thing was to beat the teams around us and we have done that well this season. We were also very unlucky and 3-0 really flattered Oxford. The conditions made the game a bit of a lottery and unfortunately we didn’t win the draw.

“We coped really well against the wind in the first half so it was a real body blow to concede right at the end and overall I thought we played better than them.”

Eastbourne: Hook 4, Austin 7, Baker 7, Pullan 6 (Harding, 83), Jenkins 6, Armstrong 5, Brown 7, Smart 5, M Crabb 6 (Wormull, 83), Jeffery 6, Atkin 6 (N Crabb 6, 69). Subs not used: Mingle, Lovett.

Booked: Baker.

Oxford: Turley, Carruthers (Sandwith, 61), Foster, Murray, Haldane, Batt (Hutchinson, 24), Willmott, Clist, Constable, Odubade (Farrell, 77), Chapman. Subs not used: Day, Hinchcliffe.

Booked: None.

Referee: Stuart Burt (Northamptonshire).

Attendance: 1,168.

Man-of-the-match: Danny Brown.