Gary Rowett believes his achievement of keeping Oxford in the Championship is equal to anything he has managed as a head coach.
The U’s secured their safety in the English second tier with a 2-0 victory over Sunderland, thanks to goals from centre-halves Ben Nelson and Michal Helik.
Rowett said: “I did a similar job at Birmingham and did a similar job initially at Millwall but it feels, personally, as big an achievement as I’ve had, but everyone’s worked so hard throughout the club to get to here.
“It would have been easy for our players to feel the pressure and melt under it a bit but whenever this group needs a result, they seem to come up with a big performance.
“I don’t think there’s been a better performance all season. Yes, Sunderland were already in the play-offs, but they’re still a quality side.
“I thought we created some good opportunities, some good moments and scored two very good set-piece goals.
“When you’re a club that doesn’t have a stellar amount of money to spend on players, you have to find different ways to get goals and it’s a remarkable stat that our top scorer is on six goals.
“But what we’ve got is another on five, a couple of others on similar numbers and someone like Michal Helik – to sign in January and to score the important goals he’s got for us has been massive.
“It’s hard to single out individuals but I thought Michal Helik and Ben Nelson were absolutely superb. Nelson showed every inch that he’s a Premier League player in the making.
“When you come into the building and we had something like 18 points from 21 games, even I felt it would be a monumental task to keep the team in the division with the sort of group that we’ve had.
“But consistently over 24 games we have been a top-10 team in this division which is a great achievement. The staff have worked tirelessly, there’s a real togetherness about the club to get us over the line and we’ve got a real opportunity now to build to the next level.
“The final game at Swansea next week will now be a lot more relaxed. It’s been a long four to five months.”
It was a fourth-successive defeat for Sunderland, who will finish in fourth place.
Black Cats head coach Regis Le Bris said: “Today it was clear that we didn’t match the energy of our opponents.
“They were fighting for their life – it wasn’t the case for us. And for duels, for direct play, for set plays and so on, we were not at the level and it was really difficult to manage these situations.
“So I think the game shifted a bit – and higher up the pitch we were not efficient enough to create chances, I think we created only one. That is not enough to win the game.
“So I don’t think we deserved to win the game.
“For me it’s a strong reminder, because this competition is violent, that if you don’t match the energy of your opponents, you can’t play.
“It was a strong reminder rather than a worry for me.
“But we don’t like the feeling of defeat but at the same time we have to stay humble and confident and that’s the case in the dressing room right now.”
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