A CONFLICTED Michael Appleton hailed a result which boosted Oxford United’s play-off belief, while criticising his side for a sloppiness which almost proved costly against Peterborough United.

The 2-1 victory was just what was required after a week which had seen back-to-back home defeats.

With sixth-placed Millwall in Emirates FA Cup action, the U’s took their chance to cut the gap to the play-offs to half a dozen points.

Appleton had stated United would need to win eight of their last 12 games to stand any chance of gatecrashing the Sky Bet League One play-offs.

While more dropped points would not have ended their hopes mathematically, the head coach agreed anything other than a win would have been very costly mentally.

He said: “It was definitely an important one.

“If we hadn’t won I would still have been confident we would’ve won quite a few games between now and the end of the season.

“But would we have had that sheer belief we could win another eight?

“Because we’ve won I’d like to think they genuinely believe there’s still an opportunity.”

In an entertaining game between two sides who looked to play attractive football, the U’s carved out some excellent chances.

Phil Edwards and Conor McAleny gave them a 2-0 lead, but Appleton was unhappy with a lack of killer instinct at both ends.

He said: “I’ll be delighted when I wake up, but I try to set decent standards and we almost got a bit casual.

“I told the players (afterwards) I’m not going to say too much because I don’t want to say something I’m going to regret.

“But we have to see out games better than we did once we went 2-0 up and we have to be more ruthless.

“We’re going to get punished if we don’t start taking these opportunities.

“It didn’t happen here, thank God, and we move to Oldham on Tuesday.”