ROB Hall and Dwight Tiendalli had nights to remember for different reasons as Oxford United produced a finishing masterclass to win 6-2 at Stevenage in the Checkatrade Trophy.

Hall scored twice, the second of which was the pick of a hotly-contested goal of the night competition, to open his account for the season.

For Tiendalli, it was his first competitive appearance since May 2015.

At one stage it looked like no-one in yellow would be able to savour a happy occasion, as Stevenage took advantage of a stuttering start from the U’s to open the scoring.

But James Henry levelled, and Hall’s brace, alongside strikes from Jon Obika, Joe Rothwell and Jack Payne sealed a convincing success.

Hall had no complaints about falling behind, but felt Henry’s equaliser turned the game.

He said: “Obviously in the first 20 minutes they were very good.

“They came out and pressed us, but I think Jamo’s goal settled us down.

“Coming away from home in a cup game isn’t easy, but I was very happy with both my goals.

“I enjoyed the second one. It was a good team build-up and I just managed to guide it into the corner.

“The gaffer said to us at half-time ‘if you keep moving the ball one and two-touch they can’t get near you’.

“That’s what we kept on doing. When we do click we’re very good and we’re a threat everywhere on the pitch.”

For Tiendalli, just getting through a full game exactly 850 days since his last competitive outing was a major hurdle overcome.

He said: “It’s always good to play 90 minutes after a long time out.

“Most of all I’m happy for the team. We played some very good football and some of the goals were outstanding.

“Of course the first 20 minutes was a little bit new to feel what was going on, but I think after that we played a really good game.”

U’s assistant head coach Derek Fazackerley was happy to see a much-changed side deliver the goods.

He said: “It was a good opportunity to get minutes into Dwight and Xemi, while (it was great for) the likes of Jack Payne and Robbie Hall to get on the scoresheet.

“Everyone’s come out of it with quite a bit of credit and we also brought Shandon (Baptiste) and James Roberts on, so all in all it was a good night’s work.”