Tisdale hails City's clinical display of counter-attacking football

Paul Tisdale was delighted with his side as Exeter City made it three successive wins away from home with a superb 4-2 win at Oxford United.

After victories at Aldershot Town (2-1) and Accrington Stanley (3-0), Tisdale's troops made it a hat-trick at the Kassam Stadium with a clinical display of counter-attacking football. "I'm very pleased. We thought it would be a big scalp if we got it. Oxford have aspirations of a promotion push this year and quite rightly so because they have a very good team," he said.

"Our players were very focused, they understood the challenge and, most importantly, they were happy to go into the game and defend.

"Our aspirations started with that and we had the knack of scoring goals at crucial times, which always helps."

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"We missed Alan Gow, who was injured and he has done so well when we have countered in the last two away games.

"There was a challenge for Jamie [Cureton] and John [O'Flynn] to work together and they did it really well. We didn't miss Alan too much," Tisdale admitted.

Central to City's win was two brilliant individual goals from Jamie Cureton and a super hard working showing from his strike partner, John O'Flynn.

"I asked all the players before the game what their personal thoughts were going into the game and John's was to work his socks off, or words to that effect," Tisdale added.

"He completed that and that is never a bad place for a player to start his preparations. It's achievable and I think a lot of players could form a foundation for their performance by working hard and he did that."

The Grecians looked comfortable at 3-0, but they allowed Oxford back into the contest with two quick goals, which had Tisdale worried.

"They had a header that went over the bar and at that point, you are thinking: 'Oh dear, here we go'," Tisdale said. "One goal can quickly become two, as we saw today, and two can quickly become three.

"We scored the third and I didn't like the fact our players were down by the corner flag celebrating, and I told them to get back. I didn't like them celebrating too much because there is a long way to go and it just shows you.

"I was worried, of course. I'm a realist. Oxford had just scored two goals and the whole tone of the game had changed, so of course I was worried. But we responded very well.

"It worked well for us today and I am not going to get carried away, but things can go so differently. Who knows what can happen at 3-2?"