Tisdale hails Oakley impact

Exeter boss Paul Tisdale said Matt Oakley was the mastermind behind his team's seventh win from their last nine away games.

The former Southampton, Derby and Leicester star, 35, played a major part in two first-half goals which inflicted a second successive home defeat on second-placed Port Vale.

And in doing so, Exeter consolidated their place in the play-off places and moved to within four points of the third automatic promotion slot in League Two.

After the 2-0 win at Vale Park, Tisdale said: "It was a very pleasing performance and result and I thought all of our players were strong and did their jobs.

"But Matt Oakley was the pick of the bunch tonight. His quality and expertise on the ball shone through and that's what class players can do.

"We were the better side for the opening 15 minutes and when you go ahead you can afford to defend deep, which was what we did.

"I thought we played a very sensible and pragmatic game. We defended very well as a team and our goalkeeper (Artur Krysiak) was big and strong when he was needed.

"When you defend deep you need your goalkeeper to come for crosses and he did that excellently.

"It's a good result and pleasing to bounce back from losing at Burton, but we've got another tough game against Northampton on Saturday and we will prepare for that."