Oxford United have completed the signings of Alex MacDonald and Jamie Ashdown, although the club missed out on a couple of transfer targets on deadline day.

The Us agreed a deal at the weekend to sign Burton Albion forward MacDonald for an undisclosed fee, with the 24-year-old putting pen to paper on a two-and-a-half-year deal on Monday afternoon.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, just hours after the January transfer window closed, the Division Four club also confirmed the capture of 34-year-old free agent Jamie Ashdown on a deal until the end of the season.

However, with the January transfer window drawing to a close on Monday night (23:00 GMT), the Yellows failed in their pursuit of Peterborough United striker Tyrone Barnett and an unnamed midfielder.

MacDonald, who has scored six goals in 25 games for the Brewers this campaign, was due to be out of contract at the Pirelli Stadium at the end of the season.

After deciding to leave joint league leaders Burton for Oxford, manager Michael Appleton is excited about what MacDonald can bring to the Us squad.

“He scores his fair share of goals but he is also a very hard worker, very tenacious, and has that little bit of quality about him,” Appleton said.

“He will give us options going forward and I think he will be a very good signing for this club.”

With MacDonald joining fellow January additions Joe Skarz and Richard Brindley at the club, Ashdown became United’s fourth signing of 2015 after agreeing a short-term contract.

The goalkeeper was a free agent after being released by Division Three outfit Crawley Town back in December, keeping four clean sheets in 12 appearances for the Red Devils.

Oxford say Ashdown’s arrival will allow Max Crocombe the chance to go out on loan and gain some valuable first-team experience for the rest of the season when the emergency loan market opens next week.

As well as benefiting the New Zealand Under-20 international, Us boss Appleton believes Ashdown provides crucial competition for number one keeper Ryan Clarke.

“Jamie is a good keeper. We want competition all through the squad so he will push Ryan Clarke for that position,” added Appleton.

“At the same time Max Crocombe has been very patient but needs to play games so Jamie being here may well allow Max to go out on loan and gain experience.

“All three of them are very good goalkeepers and strong characters and I think we now have very healthy competition in that position.”

Ashdown began his career at Division Two side Reading before moving to fellow Division Four outfit Portsmouth, making over 100 appearances for the club, including a playing spell under Appleton at Fratton Park.

Elsewhere, transfer deadline day saw Oxford fans wave goodbye to three players.

Firstly, defender David Hunt agreed to leave the Kassam Stadium by mutual consent having played just five times for the club since manager Appleton arrived last summer.

The 32-year-old right-back recently returned from a loan spell at Conference leaders Barnet on Saturday, but he is now expected to re-join the Bees until the end of the season.

Meanwhile, loanees Tareiq Holmes-Dennis and Wes Burns have had their loan deals at United cut short.

Both players were due to stay with the Yellows until the end of the campaign, but with the club unable to guarantee them first-team opportunities in the near future, the duo have returned to their parent clubs respectively.

Holmes-Dennis instantly impressed the Us after arriving on loan from Charlton Athletic, although Skarz’s recent arrival was likely to push the 19-year-old down the pecking order.

Furthermore, Burns made nine appearances for Oxford, including one goal, before joining fellow Division Four side Cheltenham Town on loan until the end of the season.

Appleton said: “Tareiq and Wes are both talented young players who have done well during their loan spells but their parent clubs want them to be playing matches to gain experience and we can’t guarantee that with other players arriving at the club on permanent deals.

“David Hunt has been an excellent servant for this club and deserves the chance to play first team games elsewhere.

“We’d like to thank all three players for their efforts and wish them well for the future.”

And lastly, Oxford missed out on two potential deadline day deals.

The Us failed in their pursuit of forward Barnett, who scored six goals in 12 starts for United during his loan spell, after the 29-year-old opted for a move to Shrewsbury Town before similarly missing out on an unnamed midfielder.

“It’s frustrating,” said Oxford Chief Executive Mark Ashton.

“There were a couple of other clubs floating around Tyrone and we have done all we can with it.

“It’s the nature of the beast and I’ve been through this enough times.

“We have done everything we could, Darryl (Eales, Chairman), myself and Michael have been involved at different times.

“We are disappointed, but we move on. With the midfield player we increased our offer substantially (yesterday), but his club were adamant they wanted to keep him in the side for the rest of the season.”