United are top dogs (From Herald Series)

United are top dogs

9:30am Wednesday 22nd August 2012 in United News By David Pritchard, Chief Sports Reporter covering Oxford United. Follow us on twitter: @oxfordmailoufc. Call me on 01865 425458

CHRIS Wilder hailed his Oxford United side after a 2-0 victory over Southend United sent them top of npower League Two.

Tom Craddock came off the bench to score both goals as the U’s made it six points out of six to move up to first place on goal difference.

United dominated against a Southend side forced to play more than an hour with ten men after Michael Timlin collected two bookings in quick succession.

Wilder was delighted with the way his team used the ball to open the visitors up and create a host of chances.

The United manager said: “Good players take advantage of (the sending off) and I thought we were good players tonight.

“Every one of them made really good decisions. “Sometimes it can be frustrating and a little bit scrappy, but they kept their patience, sucked people out of position and then put ourselves in positions to score.

“It was good for Tommy to settle us down with the first goal and then it was great for him to finish it off.

“We created loads of chances and scored a couple of goals – we could always be greedy and say we should’ve scored a couple more, but we’ll take 2-0 against a decent side.”

While the contributions made by Craddock and the rest of the attackers, particularly the outstanding Alfie Potter, caught the eye, it completed a third successive clean sheet for the U’s.

Southend were unable to muster a shot on target and Wilder reserved special praise for the back four.

He said: “There were some really good performances all over the pitch and not always from the front lads.

“It’s important the back lads are switched on because one slip gives the opposition a chance and then it really is difficult, but they were organised, disciplined and gave us a platform to win the game.”