MICHAEL Appleton revealed he made up his mind to hand James Roberts a first start early last week, but left it as late as possible to tell the striker.

Oxford United’s head coach felt the 18-year-old deserved his full debut after five successive substitute appearances, but didn’t want Roberts to get too wound up ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup match at Grimsby Town.

Appleton let him know of his plans the day before the match and was delighted with the response he got from United’s two-goal match-winner.

“I tried to leave it as late as possible before telling James he was starting,” Appleton said.

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“We had a conversation with him on Friday and we obviously did some shape work in training.

“The smile on his face was from ear to ear as you could imagine, so we had another quiet chat at the hotel on the evening before the game to tell him to just keep doing the same things and not to do anything different.

“That’s exactly what he did and I’m absolutely delighted for him.”

It was an important win for Appleton’s side, who came into the game with two successive defeats.

“We knew what a big game it was for us,” he said.

“I thought the players did a very profesional job.”

United are now in the draw for the second round of the FA Cup, which takes place at 7pm on BBC 2 tonight.

The U’s are ball No 22, with Appleton wanting a match at the Kassam Stadium.

“A home tie would be nice,” he said. “That’s the thing you’re hoping for.”

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