MICHAEL Appleton was happy to see Oxford United hit their first objective of the season with victory at Peterborough United - secure their Sky Bet League One status for next season.

The 2-1 win took the U's to 52 points, a total which has been enough to avoid relegation in the third tier for every season since 1993/94.

While Appleton has always set his sights much higher - and with 11 games left United are still in the race for the play-offs - avoiding an immediate return to League Two was the first task.

He said: "At least we’re in the division next year, unless there’s a disaster.

"That’s the most pleasing thing and we’ve still got 33 points to play for.

"Now we need to kick on and try to put as much pressure on the teams above us as we can.

"I’m not saying (the top six) is achievable.

"I just want those sides above us to feel a bit of pressure, so they go into the game thinking ‘we need to win’.

"That’s all I ask of the players."

The victory came in the wake of defeats to Bristol Rovers and Sheffield United in the previous seven days, which had slowed United's momentum.

In response, Appleton opted to scale the squad's training right back and although there were aspects of the performance the U's boss was unhappy about, the decision paid off.

He said: "We didn’t do anything after Tuesday.

"They had a day off on Wednesday and they came in on Thursday just to do a bit of a warm-up.

"Then we had probably the lightest session we’ve ever had on a Friday to try to make them as fresh as we possibly could.

"They certainly had plenty of energy, I just thought we switched off a bit."