DESPITE a tense finish Chris Wilder was thrilled with Oxford United’s performance as they beat Rotherham United 2-1 on Saturday.

Goals from Scott Rendell and Asa Hall either side of half-time put the hosts in a commanding position.

They threatened to run riot, but were unable to score a third goal and the Millers got back in the game through Lewis Grabban’s 83rd-minute penalty.

But the U’s held on for their fourth home win in five games and although Wilder did not have a comfortable end to the game, overall he was delighted.

“I should have been sat down with a big cigar in the last ten minutes because that’s what the play warranted,” he said.

“I thought there were some excellent performances all over the park, all of them can be very proud.

“2-1 doesn’t tell the story, people will look at that and think it’s a close game, but taking out the last ten minutes where we gave them a helping hand, I thought the performance merited a comfortable two or three-goal win.

“We went through two or three times to really seal the victory, but when it doesn’t happen it becomes tense for everybody involved.

“It’s an important win because the gap to Rotherham was talked about by me and we needed to lengthen it – we have done against a good side.

“I think as fans and players you always look for every result to go for you, but they didn’t today.

“The main thing was we got this result right, and we did.”

The most impressive aspect of the game was United’s attacking options.

Dean Morgan and Oli Johnson impressed on the flanks either side of Rendell, while Cristian Montano came on for his debut in the final 20 minutes.

Hall and the returning Peter Leven also carried a threat from midfield.

With top-scorer James Constable’s suspension now over, Wilder has plenty of options going forward.

He said: “We’ve said all along that if we can get our best players on the pitch we’ll be strong.

“If we’d had Beano (Constable) coming off the bench for the last 15 minutes, other managers would see that and think ‘dear me, what’s happening here?’ “The strength of the squad is what it’s all about and in Rotherham we’ve seen a decent side off.”

“Fingers crossed we can stay injury-free and get a few more players back, then we’ll have a really strong finish to the season.”