James ‘Beano’ Constable, who almost single-handedly salvaged an amazing Oxford United victory from the ruins of a desperate first-half performance at Crawley on Tuesday, said a rousing half-time pep talk by manager Chris Wilder got them in the mood.

Wilder admitted afterwards he had made a mistake in not playing fit-again Constable and Alfie Potter from the start.

But, in a manner that brought back memories of Hull manager Phil Brown's famous lecture to the players on the pitch last season, Wilder took the players to the centre of the pitch before the start of the second half and highlighted a few home truths.

“We came on at half-time and knew we had to do better,” Constable said. “The manager told us we're a million times better than that.

“It was just a case of repeating the way we played there last year and replicating the amount of effort we put in. I think we did that in the second half.”

Constable and Potter helped to inspire a stunning second-half performance when they kept Crawley on the back foot, and United's leading scorer won it in stoppage time with a near-post header from Adam Chap-man's cross, having moments earlier missed a spot-kick.

He said: “I’m disappointed with the penalty and just happy that I dug myself out of it in the last minute.

“It was vital we got a win in this game, and a couple of other results have gone our way, so it’s just lucky we got that late goal.

“I thought I'd blown it. I had a great chance to win it and luckily it was a great ball from Chappy and I managed to sneak in there.”

Constable missed the FA Cup second-round tie against Barrow because of a back injury, but he said it was fine during Tuesday night's league game.

“I didn't think I’d have any hope on Sunday of being involved, so I’m just delighted I could play some part and get the winner late on.”

Wilder said: “We’ve got to play better, we know that. But when you're at the top of the league, you're always there to be shot at.

“We've got away with one here. There are some results during the season that go for you, and this was possibly one of those.

“To get to 52 points by 22 games is a fantastic achievement.”