Boss looks to the future after U's end 2016 with a point
Oxford United ended 2016 with a draw against Walsall on New Year's Eve with Head Coach Michael Appleton seeing the game as a bit of a learning curve for his young side.
“I thought the first half was OK, our patience was good and we might have made more of one or two opportunities, but then in the second half we just ran out of a little bit of steam" he told Yellow Player HD. "There was a little bit of nervousness in the last ten minutes, maybe as a result of what happened on Monday where we lost the game, but it’s a point on the board, and we are thankful to Simon Eastwood for a couple of saves right at the end.
"Walsall have been playing at this level for a long time now and I thought they were a little bit cuter than us in the second half in terms of game management. The two lads in the middle of the park sat in front of the back four and didn’t allow us to play anything into our strikers. We will learn from that. But it was a good test for us and we share the spoils.
"We now have 22 games to compete and improve at this level and see where we are at. We have some good young players who are only going to get better and better in 2017."
See the full interview plus the thoughts of Simon Eastwood and extended highlights from midday in Yellow Player HD