Appleton: While Boro were losing their heads, we kept ours

Michael Appleton says Stevenage could have had 12 men and his Oxford United side would still have beaten them.

The Us put five past Boro at the Lamex on Saturday, while Stevenage also had two men sent off in the 5-1 reversal.

Appleton says he was delighted with his side’s performance, adding that while the hosts were losing their heads his side kept theirs.

“Our performance had bags of quality, lots of discipline, loads of purpose about it. It had everything including patience,” Appleton said.

“The first five minutes is as well as we have started this season. Overall I am absolutely delighted with our display.

“If Stevenage had had 12 men we would have still won the game.

“I spoke to my team at half-time when [Stevenage] were down to 10 men and we kept our heads in the second half.

“When we have got the extra man we have to make sure we take control of the game and we did that exceptionally well – so when they were losing their heads we were keeping ours.”