"We take it on the chin and move on" says Appleton
Oxford United’s unbeaten start to the season ended with a 1-0 defeat at Northampton Town on Saturday. The U’s couldn’t find a way through against the ten men of Northampton in the second half but Head Coach Michael Appleton believes they now have the ideal opportunity to bounce straight back when they welcome Portsmouth to the Kassam Stadium on Saturday.
“We have to be man enough and brave enough to take it on the chin and move on” he told Yellow Player HD. “Now it’s about the reaction. We have a big home game against Portsmouth and our home form has been pretty good so far. The fact that it is Portsmouth means it will be a big crowd and a great atmosphere and we have to make sure we take advantage of that.”
The game hinged on a red card for Jason Taylor which handed United a penalty shortly before half time. However Danny Hylton failed to convert that opportunity; a big moment in an enthralling 90 minutes.
“Hylts obviously felt good about it because he ran over and picked it up straight away, and you have to back your players in those situations” Michael said.” It didn’t quite happen for us but ultimately we still had fifty minutes to get ourselves back into the game. But those are big moments and ones that have to go for us.”
There were positives despite defeat, with midfielder John Lundstram looking very composed on his full league debut for United.
“He’s going to be a very good player” Michael told us. “It was probably a little but harder for him when they went down to ten men because they dropped deeper and deeper and there was no space in behind them, but he brings a range of passing that I think will hurt teams.”
See the FULL interview plus over ten minutes of highlights and an exclusive interview with Lundstram in Yellow Player HD right now.