Oxford City general manager Justin Merritt praised his players’ strength of character as they held on to beat Tamworth 1-0 in Vanarama Conference North despite playing the final 30 minutes with just ten men, writes MATTHEW BRUCE.

Midfielder Declan Benjamin went in goal as City keeper Salva de la Cruz was sent off for the second week running, but Merritt felt his side handled the situation well.

“I didn’t quite envisage it panning out with a second sending-off for Salva,” Merritt admitted.

“That’s about the second time in his life he’s been sent off, both in the space of a couple of weeks.

“To a man, I’m really proud of the players. I thought not only did they work and make sure the extra man didn’t tell, but they also played really well and passed the ball.”

It was the tenth time this season City have had a player sent off, and the second successive week they have had to field an outfield player in goal.

“It is something that I’m not pleased with at all,” said Merritt. “We’ve had ten sendings-off and that’s cost us. We got the victory today, but it’s cost us a lot of points.

“A lot of the incidents have just been really poor one-off decisions and we’re just trying to get that out of the players, but that doesn’t seem to be happening overnight.”