"I'll have a few more headaches now" says U's boss
Oxford United moved into the last eight of the Checkatrade Trophy with an excellent 4-1 win over Scunthorpe last night, leaving Head Coach Michael Appleton to reflect on a good night’s work:
“We scored four and it was a great night for Kane with his hat-trick so overall I’m very happy” he told Yellow Player HD. “I was a little bit disappointed how we started the first 15 minutes, when we got got caught trying to play too much in our half but once we got the goal we settled down and upped it a notch.”
Kane Hemmings’ hat trick and a good goal from Marvin Johnson sent United through in a game that had many positives including the return of Joe Skarz and Liam Sercombe, excellent performances in midfield from Josh Ruffels and Joe Rothwell, and a full 90 minutes from Rob Hall. With Ryan Taylor seizing his chance at Rotherham on Saturday it gives Michael some interesting choices to make as his side head for AFC Wimbledon on Saturday.
“I had had a bit of a moan two or three weeks ago at the substitutes because I didn’t think they were making enough impact or making my life difficult enough when the team needed to be picked” he said. “They have started to do that, which is good and I’ll have a few more headaches! That’s how it should be.”
United continue to fight on three fronts:
“We are two games from Wembley now” Michael said “I told them before the game that we are roughly where we were when we played Yeovil in the area quarter final last year because the next game was two legs against Millwall. We are in the same position now and it is an opportunity for us and for the players to reach a showcase final again, but then I guess there will be seven other teams thinking exactly the same thing.”
See the full interview plus videos with Kane Hemmings and Joe Skarz, and extended highlights with all the action, all in Yellow Player HD now