MICHAEL Appleton admitted Oxford United had to ride their luck on the way to grinding out a 1-0 win at Bristol Rovers which extended their unbeaten league run to 14 games, writes DAVID PRITCHARD.

The home side played with ten men for 75 minutes after Ollie Clarke was sent off for an elbow, but the game became ten-a-side when Liam Sercombe collected his second yellow card just before the hour mark.

Rovers felt they had a strong call for a penalty with a challenge by Patrick Hoban in the closing stages, but it was turned down by referee James Linington.

Appleton was thrilled with the result and had no problems with United needing the rub of the green to get it.

The head coach said: “I think you’ve got to ride your luck in every game.

“We’re away from home and we’ve won the game, that’s the most important thing.

“As you can probably imagine the dressing room is absolutely delighted we’ve kept the unbeaten run going and we have something to hold on to going into the next few weeks.”

Rovers manager Darrell Clarke was unhappy with the officials.

He said: “It was set up to be a great game and I thought the referee spoiled it by getting the red card out too early.

“To be honest I thought we were the better team with ten men.

“Oxford are one of the fancied teams to be up there, but we are not too far away.”

The one sour note for the visitors was a shoulder injury which forced off Kemar Roofe, whose jaw-dropping finish won the game.

Appleton, who also lost Johnny Mullins to a twisted ankle on Friday, said: “I would imagine it will take 48 hours to settle down, so we probably won’t have a proper idea until around Wednesday.”