Head Coach helps us get set for Sunday's big game
Oxford United Head Coach Michael Appleton sends his side out at Bristol Rovers on Sunday looking to continue an unbeaten league run that stretches back to March. The U’s were not involved in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy in midweek having been given a bye and with the weekend’s game switched to Sunday for the SKY cameras Michael believes that an uninterrupted week has given everyone a chance to take stock after a busy first month.
“We had one or two sore bodies so I think it’s a good thing that we’ve had a little break” he told Yellow Player HD. “It was a lot of games in a short space of time although I do like midweek games if I’m being honest, certainly if you are going on a bit of a run. But overall a week with no game has been good because it has given us a chance to reflect and do a bit of re-evaluating after the first five games of the season; how it’s gone, what's been good and what’s not gone so well. That now gives us the opportunity to focus on the next five.
“We are delighted to be unbeaten but we have to reproduce that form, do the things we have done in those five matches and try and improve by small percentages on the things that we didn’t do so well. We have some tough games coming up, including two away games now, but we go into them full of confidence.”
Michael needs no further motivation than a chastening defeat at Cambridge last season when his side were last live on TV…
“It was a big learning experience for me and I took a lot from that game” he said. “As difficult as the game was I had the time on the journey back home to think about what had happened and that game was one that I made a lot of decisions on the back of.
“I think we have made huge strides since that day. Rovers have fantastic support and the atmosphere will be like we went in to at Luton the other week. The crowd is right on top of you, but I think our players will embrace that and with the TV cameras there it is an opportunity to express ourselves the right way and go out there and do a professional job.”
See the whole interview plus the thoughts of Benjamin Buchel, George Baldock and Kemar Roofe, all in Yellow Player HD right now