Relief was the overriding emotion for Oxford City general manager Justin Merritt after seeing his side battle back to win 5-3 at Colwyn Bay, writes Matthew Bruce.

City were in trouble after squandering a three-goal lead.

Merritt admitted they need to be better defensively.

He said: “We can’t guarantee we’re going to be scoring three, four, five goals away from home.

“When we got into that position at 3-0 we really needed to kill the game off.”

“But to go back to 3-3 and with the injuries we’ve had and enforced substitutions it showed great character to go on and get another couple of goals and win the game.”

Merritt added: “We haven’t been able to have a settled back four so far this season.

“With the goalkeeper, I just want to get that unit stable to give us a platform to build on.

“But we’ve certainly got goals in the team, we play some great football and it’s exciting times.”

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