SHAUN Derry praised Oxford United's discipline as they rose to the occasion and won their basement clash with Plymouth Argyle.

Jamie Mackie put the home side ahead early on and then set up Curtis Nelson to seal a 2-0 win 16 minutes from time.

The result meant United's stay at the bottom of the Sky Bet League One table was brief, leapfrogging the Pilgrims, who had Yann Songo'o sent off in the closing stages.

Derry, who took over the post-match media duties from boss Karl Robinson, said: "We’re not silly people, we knew this afternoon was a big game and I think we handled the emotion really well.

"I thought it was a collective display, the crowd were fantastic and right behind us.

"We spoke about the opposition all week and ultimately it’s the players who have to go on and put in a performance. I thought they did that really well.

"At times this season we’ve perhaps let ourselves down with our won self-discipline, but today I felt we managed the game really well."

Defeat would have cut United four points adrift and Mackie was well aware of what was at stake.

He said: "I think it just came to a stage today, we knew the score – we had to win, didn’t we? We had to win today, we knew that.

"We have to take that attitude and effort into every game and try to build on it."