MARK Jones was thrilled with the way his Oxford City side handled the physical challenge from East Thurrock United to extend their winning run.

Kabongo Tshimanga scored twice alongside a Zac McEachran strike to seal a 3-1 victory at Court Place Farm - their fourth Vanarama National League South success in a row.

It lifted them to tenth in the table, one point off the play-off positions, but they had to work hard against a side second bottom in the table.

The result was a fitting way for Jones to celebrate his 100th game in charge, but the team came first for the City boss.

He said: "These personal milestones are good, but the most important thing was we tried to get three points and continue our good run.

"I was really pleased with our performance.

"It was a tough game, East Thurrock made it difficult for us.

"They played quite direct, I think they felt they could cause us a few problems by getting the ball in our box and we had to deal with some long throws, but I thought we stood up well.

"Sometimes you’ve got to do that, you’re not going to have everything your own way for 90 minutes.

"We had to stick at it and I was really pleased with that.

"As the game went on we created some good chances and looked threatening."

He added: "That’s four wins on the spin in the league and it’s a very long time since we’ve done that as a club."

City held a 1-0 lead at the break, only to see the advantage wiped out within seconds of the restart.

But the hosts were able to conjure a rapid response, with Tshimanga bagging his second goal of the night.

He said: "It was a terrible start to the second half - straight from the kick off we didn’t clear our lines.

"But three or four minutes later it was a great ball by Zac and a fantastic finish from Kabby."