Mike Ford said that nobody could deny Oxford City deserved to go through to the first round – despite needing a last-gasp winner from Andy Gunn.

And City’s boss was full of praise for his side’s character in coming from behind to claim victory.

“We were the better side on the day – no question about that,” Ford said.

“We created a number of good chances and I just thought that the way that my players dug in and turned it around was exceptional.

“It would have been easy to let heads drop after going behind and hitting the woodwork a number of times, but we kept going.”

Ford added: “I know that they will say that they were unlucky because we have cleared one off the line when it was 1-1, but we’ve had two others blocked on the line ourselves.

“We did everything but score a number of times, but we kept going and that is great credit to all of the players.

Match-winner Gunn could not hide his delight at both the result, and being the last-gasp hero.

“It’s an absolutely amazing feeling,” he said.

“We didn’t play at our best, but we had some good spells and deserved the victory.

“The dressing room was buzzing afterwards, it’s just a fantastic achievement by all of the players to get through to the first round of the FA Cup.”

Gunn said that he could not believe it when he saw the ball hit the net from his last-minute header.

“The corner’s come in and I have got a good contact and it’s gone in,” he said.

“It was just the best feeling in the world – and then it was time to celebrate.

“We have a great bunch of players here and it’s just great to go through and get the chance to play against Football League teams.”