MICHAEL Appleton is confident Oxford United’s players have the mental strength and ability to continue to bounce back from disappointments.

The U’s had lost four Sky Bet League One matches before last weekend’s 3-1 defeat against AFC Wimbledon.

But on three occasions they followed those setbacks with victory in their next game.

United’s head coach knows it will be a big ask to bounce back from Sunday’s defeat by inflicting a first loss of the season on Bradford City tomorrow.

But he says the squad he has assembled is more than capable of springing a surprise, and is hopeful the style of play adopted by their opponents can help his side.

“We have got fantastic, hard-working staff who take their jobs very seriously,” Appleton said.

“I have said all along that it’s one thing trying to bring the right players in, but getting the right personalities and people in the building is very important.”

United trailed 3-0 at half-time last week against a physical Wimbledon side who got the ball forward at every opportunity.

“There’s no doubt about it, we have struggled against sides who play direct this season,” Appleton added.

“I wanted to rip into the players at half-time, but it would have been a waste of time.

“They were all distraught and didn’t understand what had just happened.

“I think some of them were in a state of shock.

“I left them for three or four minutes to gather their thoughts before I had my say.

“I’m hoping we can use that pain a bit and bounce back on Saturday.

“When we have come up against sides who like to play we have done pretty well. Hopefully that happens again.”

The performance of referee Darren Deadman was the main talking point on Sunday, with a number of big decisions going against the U’s.

While always having his say about the report sent in by the club about the officials, Appleton was keen to play a more active role this week.

“The frustration is that there were two really bad tackles,” he said.

“Everyone talks about the one on Wes, but the tackle on Chey (Dunkley) is as bad as I have seen for a while.

“To be fair to Chey he gets straight up and that massively saves the boy.

“You can’t be too angry at Chey for not making more of it, but that player then goes and scores the first goal.

“Then there’s the foul on Wes for the second goal, and then the two penalties we should have had. I could go on.

“Let’s just say I am sure he was given a mark exactly how a performance like that should have been marked.

“I definitely had more of an input than normal. There were a few people who wanted an input in this mark.”

Appleton appreciates the tough job referee’s have, but says there is only one thing that everyone wants.

“We get feedback from assessors who watch games on any key decisions,” he said.

“We have had three or four that have gone against us this season and every assessor has come back to us and said ‘yes, you’ve got a point there’.

“That’s great. But at the end of the day it doesn’t get you anywhere.

“We just want consistency.”