DEALING with direct teams: must do better.

Michael Appleton’s half-term report was unequivocal about one area which needs improvement from Oxford United’s season to date.

They bossed the first half against Port Vale last week, but when their hosts switched to a long ball approach after the break a 2-0 United lead vanished within minutes.

Likewise the U’s struggled to deal with AFC Wimbledon, who were well on the way to a 3-1 victory at the Kassam Stadium by half-time.

Another culture clash is expected tomorrow for the visit of Millwall, who have a reputation for route one football.

Appleton pulled no punches in his assessment of United’s record against similar sides so far, but was equally clear on why it had not been the main focus in training this week.

“We have dealt with it poorly and the players know that,” he said.

“You can only keep working on it to improve.

“But I don’t want to spend four hours a week working on smashing balls up to strikers and getting them to pretend to be (Lee) Gregory and (Steve) Morison (Millwall’s front two).

“That would completely take the focus away from what you’re about.

“You just have to trust the players that over a period of games they will get better, nullify a few mistakes and be a bit more competitive.

“When that happens and they get confidence from picking up a couple of results then what we do with the ball will become the most important thing, as it should be.”

While United know a failure to deal with balls into the box from set pieces was costly at Vale Park, the post-match debrief was centred around what happened next.

He said: “When we watched the game on Monday, as disappointed as we all were with the goals we conceded, the whole meeting was about how we reacted.

“Quite frankly, after the couple of defeats in the previous three games, we could have gone under and lost the game.

“Now, we still could’ve lost the game, but that was from us trying to win it.”

Appleton was disappointed with the way his side resorted to fighting fire with fire against Wimbledon.

So the United boss, who picked the diminutive front pairing of Chris Maguire and Dan Crowley against Vale, was pleased to see them stick to their guns when in possession.

He said: “We didn’t get sucked in to what they were doing, which I was delighted with.

“I thought the composure they showed under a bit of pressure was good.

“We got done by a sucker punch and hopefully it won’t happen again on Saturday.

“And even if it does, hopefully in possession we’ll be good enough to go and score more goals than Millwall.”