Centre half Mark Creighton believes everyone in the Oxford United team could feel well satisfied by Saturday’s 2-0 victory at Ebbsfleet, because the Kent club is never an easy place to go.

And he saluted Matt Green’s performance after the striker proved the catalyst for what turned out to be a comprehensive away win.

“This is a difficult place to come,” Creighton said.

“I’ve come here the last three seasons with Kidderminster and never picked up a result, so to come and get a win like this is great.

“The lads did a professional job . . . the strikers did their job and we did our job at the back, so everyone can give themselves a pat on the back.

“But we’ve just got to keep going on, it’s a long season.”

He added: “I thought Greeny was exceptional, to be honest. He was always an outlet, he ran at them, and it hurt them.

“I think the left back will sleep well tonight, he did quite a lot of running, but credit to Greeny – he was back to his best.”

Green himself said: “It was really nice to get back on the scoresheet after missing a couple on Monday, and it was great to get back to winning ways.

“Before the game, everyone would have taken 2-0 away from home, so it’s a great result.

“Playing on the right gives you opportunities to run at people.

“The gaffer said to be positive once you get the ball and I’ve done that.”

The shot that brought him the U’s opening goal was perfectly directed, just inside the left post, though his house-mate James Constable was racing to get there in case there was an opportunity for him to knock it in.

“He was following in unless it came back off the post, and he’d have a tap-in,” Green said. “He’s still one ahead of me (in goals).”

Jamie Cook had a more than decent first start on his return to the club.

Said Green: “You can see Cooky’s a great player, he’s got good vision.

“He’s a totally different player to me, Beano and Jack, so it’s going to be interesting now – we’ve got so much competition for places.”

U’s boss Chris Wilder said: “I was delighted with Cooky, he had that extra bit of quality – like in one of the moves where he flicked it through to Beano.

“This isn’t always an easy place to come, but we’ve had some decent chances and played some decent football.

“It was a great afternoon for us. We created chances, we were solid – a great away performance, and where we had a lot of the ball, took our chances first half and created a few more second half.

“I don’t think Ryan Clarke had a lot to do and I thought our front three were a handful for them all day.

“We were good in both boxes, which is ultimately what counts.

“Greeny’s not dwelled on Monday, when I’ve got to say he was rubbish!

“But there was only me, the coaching staff, the rest of the players and the 6,000 spectators who saw that.

“I thought he was certainly close to being our best player today.”