MICHAEL Appleton was thrilled to see Oxford United put setbacks from two games earlier in the season behind them with the superb 4-0 win at Rochdale.

The U's ended Dale's ten-match winning run in Sky Bet League One at Spotland with an excellent all-round display.

Marvin Johnson and Rob Hall gave them a 2-0 lead at the break, before Ryan Taylor and Ryan Ledson netted in the second half.

The finishing was clinical, but Appleton also pointed to the way his side handled the physical aspect of the game far better than in the 2-1 defeat at AFC Wimbledon a week earlier.

He said: "The players were a bit hurt about last week.

"We know we didn’t do ourselves justice out of possession and we got outmuscled.

"We knew we were coming up against a very good side in Rochdale who are deservedly up where they are and on their day can quite regularly turn sides over 4-0 themselves because they flood bodies into the box.

"We knew we had to be aggressive and take the game to them and get into their faces.

"You can’t over-play on here because the surface isn’t particularly great. I thought we did that."

The second issue United dealt with was how to play with a 2-0 lead at half-time.

They had been in exactly the same position at Port Vale in October, before allowing their hosts to hit back and draw 2-2.

It was going to be at the top of Appleton's half-time team talk, but the players beat him to it.

He said: "It’s interesting because I didn’t have to say it.

"As soon as we were coming in probably seven or eight of them said ‘Port Vale’ straight away.

"It almost took away from me what I needed to say to them.

"I asked them to do three or four things in the second half and they did all of them."