KARL Robinson praised Oxford United for sticking to the task as they fought back from two goals down to win 3-2 at Shrewsbury Town.

Josh Ruffels headed home in the 88th minute to secure all three points for the U’s, after Marcus Browne and Dan Agyei had restored parity either side of half-time.

Read also: Shrewsbury Town 2 (Udoh 12, Lang 34), Oxford United 3 (Browne 45+3, Agyei 59, Ruffels 88)

The triumph sent United third in Sky Bet League One and secured a fifth straight Football League success for the first time since 1996.

But it was the manner of victory that pleased Robinson most.

The U’s head coach said: “We’ve spoken quite a lot about being calm, regardless of what’s going on around you.

“I thought we kept our discipline superbly well.

“You’ve got to give tremendous credit to Shrewsbury, in the first 20 minutes we were kicking into quite a strong wind and they overcommitted in certain areas and made it difficult for us to get near their goal.

“But when we did get near their goal we asked the question.”

He added: “We’ve got good players all over the football pitch and we know that on any given day we can score a number of goals.

“That’s always going to be the way with this team.”

Daniel Udoh had put the hosts ahead after 12 minutes, with Callum Lang making it 2-0 shortly after the half-hour mark.

That was quickly followed by a second yellow card for Shrewsbury’s Josh Vela to give United hope again, but Robinson was nonetheless concerned about his side’s slow start.

He said: “The way we started the first 20 minutes, I wasn’t happy with it.

“If we do that in bigger games against teams who are up and in around us, we’ll find ourselves three or four down.

“All of a sudden you’re chasing the game, so we’ve got to be better than that.”