Appleton looks to Saturday's trip to Rotherham
Head Coach Michael Appleton is looking for his side to replicate last year’s success in the third round of the FA Cup as they head for Rotherham on Saturday. The U’s have had a welcome squad boost with Liam Sercombe returning to training, but have also secured the loan extension of Charlie Raglan from Chesterfield.
“Charlie’s one of those where he might find himself a bit unfortunate to be out of the team anyway, but I know when he’s called upon he’s done a great job since he’s been at the club. We are delighted and we look forward to having him around till the end of the season and beyond the end of the season, who knows.”
The U’s look for more cup success, having beaten Premier League Swansea at the same stage of the competition last year, but Appleton warns about complacency as they come up against Championship opposition:
“One thing I do like to remind people about is the Blackburn game. We went into that game too confident almost, with a little bit of arrogance about us and we got well and truly beat up by a side that had been on a poor run. There was a bit of desperation about their game as they knew the position they were in. We have to go into this game with the same mentality that we have done in previous cup ties. If we do, we give ourselves a chance of going through.
“Having gone through some of the video, Rotherham should have been two or three up against Leeds last weekend. They didn’t get the goal and got punished and ended up losing the game convincingly in the second half so we are aware of the dangers they have going forward.
“Ultimately it’s a test against a side that are in a better division and we go in as the underdogs and rightly so, they’ve earned that right. Yes they’re going through a poor period but like I said before if we go into it the same way as we did against Blackburn we’ll get beaten. We have to be aware that we have to do the right things and do all the things that we’ve done over the last ten or eleven games, making sure we repeat that.”
See Michael's thoughts on Tyler Roberts and the likes of Josh Ashby, James Roberts and Robbie Cundy after they returned from their loan spells at Oxford City, all in Yellow Player HD where we also have all the build up with Charlie Raglan and Ryan Taylor.