GARY Rowett was pleased with the number of positives he saw from his first game in the Oxford United dugout.
The U’s soared into a 3-0 lead via goals from Mark Harris, Ciaron Brown and Przemyslaw Placheta, but made it a nervy ending at Grenoble Road through the concession of two goals in the closing stages against Cardiff City.
United lifted themselves out of the Sky Bet Championship relegation zone with victory over fellow strugglers Cardiff, and Rowett saw plenty to be happy about.
He said: “I thought there was some really good stuff. In the first game, you’re looking for little bits.
“You’re never going to get the complete performance. You’re looking for little bits of energy, little bits of a spark that you can work on and build on, and you can see positives.
“I thought there were a lot of positives. Cardiff playing a different system to us gave us a bit of a challenge at times because they moved us around and sometimes you can get out and press early, and sometimes you end up being caught in, and find it hard to get out.
“I thought when we settled down and moved the ball, I thought we moved it quite well.
“We scored good goals at good times. The one right before half-time, I was really pleased for Mark because he did a lot of work as a number nine.
“He did so much tireless work and as a striker, sometimes you just want to nick the odd goal to make that work worthwhile.
“In the second half, you want them to build on it. I thought we scored two very good goals, one a set piece which the lads worked really hard on.
“And then Shemmy’s is a wonderful strike. To get into a 3-0 position was terrific and then what you don’t want to do is allow the opposition to get back into it.”
Rowett added: “The main thing I take away is that we won the game. When you’re in this position, you want to find different ways to win games.
“It’s never going to be perfect, it’s never going to be ideal. What I said to them in there was that when we’re 3-0 up, you’ve got to work a hell of a lot harder to make sure the opposition don’t get back into the game.
“I don’t know whether sometimes that is a little bit of nerves and anxiety when you haven’t won for a while.
“Sometimes you try and tend to be safe, and by being safe, you let the opposition get that impetus in the game.
“Certainly you won’t see my teams often squandering a 3-0 lead and making it nervy. That’s certainly something I don’t want to see creep in.”