DANNY Rose felt Oxford United’s energetic performance against Yeovil Town showed resting players in midweek was the right decision by head coach Michael Appleton.

The midfielder was one of six key players who dropped out of the starting XI for Tuesday’s 1-0 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday in the Capital One Cup.

The group, who had all started five games in 15 days, were restored to the line-up on Saturday and went on to run Yeovil ragged in a 2-0 win at the Kassam Stadium.

Rose said: “You want to play in the big stadiums and the big games, but for the club the bigger picture is promotion, no doubt.

“The gaffer made the decision to keep six players as fresh as possible and I think we had to do well for him to justify the decision and we did that.

“Looking back now it was definitely the right one.”

He added: “It was very important we got the three points and over the course of the 90 minutes we definitely deserved it.”

In a game where United had strong performances all over the pitch, Rose stood out as he dictated play.

It was another chance to show his encouraging partnership in central midfield with Liam Sercombe and the 27-year-old thought it was the best they had played as a pair.

He said: “I think this was the first time we really dominated the midfield, even though we were against a three.

“That was testament to the strikers who helped us out to sit on their deepest midfielder (Alex Lacey).

“Roofey (Kemar Roofe) and Hylts (Danny Hylton) did that really well to stop him and he ended up getting subbed off.”