REVITALISED Phil Trainer is targeting a 12-goal return this season after his cracking clincher against Crawley.

The former Moor Green midfielder (pictured) hit his fourth of the season to bring Oxford United both their first goal of December, and their first home league win since they defeated Salisbury City 2-1 on September 25.

And afterwards he stated: "I always try to get double figures, every season, and I'll be aiming for that again."

United manager Darren Patterson was delighted with Trainer's super strike and admitted: "He's very capable of that, I've got to say.

"He gets in areas, and sometimes he's been passing the ball and passing the buck.

"He's very capable of scoring from distance, with both feet. We'd like to see more of that from him, to be honest.

"But what you've got to understand with Phil is that it's his first season at this level and he'd been finding it difficult this last dozen games or so, but he is consistent in his effort and in his demanding and wanting the ball.

"I'm glad we gave him a rest. He'd been used to training twice a week and he might need to be looked after a bit more than the others.

"We've probably overplayed Phil. He's come up from the league below, which was part-time, and he had an outstanding start to his career in pre-season and in the first dozen or so games.

But he's needed a lot more help in there and he's looked a bit leggy in the last ten or so games, but we haven't had bodies to put in there.

"We gave him the weekend off and he had some time at home, so it's obviously paid dividends."

United's manager admitted they were indebted to their experienced goalkeeper Billy Turley for securing the three points, which will boost confidence all round.

"We rode our luck a bit towards the end, when we dropped off a bit too deep for my liking, but I thought the effort, from 1 to 11, was excellent.

"Billy's come in, he's not fully fit, and was excellent.

"I'm pleased for the young players we have in the team that it gives them the self-belief that they can do that at home. We'll take that for the next two games.

"We want to score fours and fives, we want to play expansive football, with lots of shots and crosses.

"But if it's not happening, we'll take 1-0 any day of the week because it keeps us in and around the short-term goal, which is the play-offs.

"It builds momentum We'll not get carried away, but this builds momentum and confidence. We'll not get carried away, just as we didn't get carried away when we hadn't scored for 600 minutes because some of the players had warranted goals.

"It wasn't as though we hadn't created chances."