Oxford United enjoyed their best win of the season as braces from Billy Bodin and Matty Taylor saw them beat Port Vale 4-0 at the Kassam Stadium this afternoon.

Bodin and Taylor shared the headlines but this was an excellent team performance and a result that has been brewing for a while for the U's, who are starting to look much more like their old selves.

Today they were ahead after ten minutes as Bodin slotted home his second goal of the season, and they never looked back after that.

The opening goal came from Vale offering Marcus Browne too much space 25 yards from goal. Browne, terrific in the number 10 role, set his sights and fired low and hard towards the left corner. Keeper Aidan Stone parried, but Bodin clinically sent the rebound back past the stranded goalie to make it 1-0.

Simon Eastwood kept that lead intact with an astonishing save - the latest in a series over recent weeks - to tip an Ellis Harrison header onto the bar with Mal Benning unable to convert the rebound, but after 27 minutes it was 2-0 as Taylor tapped home from close range.

Bodin was this time the architect, powering past defender Sammy Robinson despite having his shirt almost ripped from his back. He fed Browne, charging into the box, and when his shot bobbled past Stone, Taylor did what Taylor does, tapping home from a yard out.

Vale protested about him being offside. He wasn’t.

That's 53 league goals for United’s talisman but few expected him to take until mid-November for his first of the season. Thankfully the wait for the second/54th wasn't too long.

The Valiants came at Oxford but found it hard to create clear chances in the first half, while James Henry was inches away from making it 3-0 with a low drive that flashed just the wrong side of the post.

The visitors redoubled their efforts in the second 45 minutes, the dangerous Harrison glancing a header wide when well placed on the hour mark, but leaving space to chase a game is dangerous against the U's, and soon after the hour it was 3-0 and three points assured as Bodin scored his second.

He made it look simple but it was actually a difficult finish; a high bouncing ball after a corner wasn't cleared, but sometimes you don't need power and Bodin planted the ball past Stone to make it 3-0.

Two minutes later and it was a race for the match ball as Taylor netted his second. Henry swung in a free kick, Stuart Findlay challenged but the ball flew beyond him and Taylor reacted to stick his tousled locks forward and thump the ball past the exposed Stone to seal the convincing home win that United so desperately needed.

As their nickname suggests, the visitors had been valiant and perhaps were a touch hard done by with the scoreline, but how many times have we said that about the U's this season? If midfielder Tom Pett and his band were heartbroke, then so be it. Factor in a clean sheet - the first in the league since the first home game of the season - plus a position in the top half of the table,  and it was a good afternoon's work all round.

Five games unbeaten now and United are once again on the march up the table.

Nobody get carried away,  but a slow start and then a steady climb? We've been here before. Strap yourselves in, there will be bumps in the road ahead, but all of a sudden that road ahead looks a lot brighter...

Att: 8,198

Away: 949

Fifty/50 winning number 51405 wins £776.50

Report by Chris Williams, pictures Steve Edmunds and Steve Daniels, stats by OPTA