Oxford boss Aaron Ramsey felt his team’s 1-0 win over Stockport was their best performance since he took charge.
Mark Harris’s 35th-minute goal, slamming home Siriki Dembele’s left-wing cross, proved the winner and lifted the Us to third in League One.
Ramsey said: “This is definitely the performance that makes me most proud.
“Our out-of-possession stuff, you can’t fault the boys for that. But today we showed a lot more courage and belief that we can play through teams.
“Louie Sibley was instrumental for us but everyone played their part. I hope the fans can be proud of the football they are seeing.
“It was a huge moment for Mark (Harris) to get the goal – we know how important he is with the way that he presses.
“He can initiate the press, he has that knack of knowing when to go. For him to get among the goals is very important for us.”
Ramsey added: “I thought it was a very good game of football between two teams who want to play and dominate the ball.
“We turned the ball over in high areas quite a few times – there were a couple of loose ones to deal with – but overall I thought we were superb.
“Our out-of-possession stuff, that’s our entity and we also had the courage to go out and play. We carved them open quite a few times.
“On those occasions when we press and do create the overloads we’re hard to stop because we create high-quality chances. But also we played over the press sometimes, with Jamie (Cumming) playing some fantastic balls.
“We wanted to start the game with real intensity and we did that. We looked dangerous on a few occasions, maybe just lacking a bit of composure to make it count more often.”
County boss Jimmy McNulty said: “For about 30 minutes I thought we were the better team, we had large amounts of control.
“I did feel in that period, though, that we did get a little bit looser with our skills and lost the ball a couple of occasions – and one of those occasions led to the transition that Oxford scored from.
“The first goal’s such a big moment and changes things.
“We made attacking changes in the second half, went after the ball in high places and that opened up spaces for us.
“They’re a good team with a lot of players who were in the Championship last season and we took that challenge on. We knew there might be more opportunities for Oxford than we had given them first half, but we knew that might increase our opportunities also.
“I think a draw would have been a fair result. I felt our play merited at least one goal. I dropped to the ground because I felt the ball was in – I was shocked it wasn’t. But they had big moments mainly on transition.
“I perhaps should have refreshed the team more because this was our third away game in a row. Some fatigue was in there for sure – we’re looking forward to refreshing our bodies and minds and getting back to a home game.”
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