Cheltenham boss Michael Duff was delighted to welcome fans back to the Jonny-Rocks Stadium with a thrilling 5-3 League Two comeback win over Exeter.

Liam Sercombe netted twice against his former club to keep the Robins in second place and Duff described their first-half performance as they best 45 minutes of the season so far.

“It was a good game, which had everything: goals, incidents and goals from the first few minutes to the last few, so there was always something happening,” he said.

“We were excellent today, particularly first half. I thought we should have been out of sight by half-time, hitting the crossbar and having shots cleared off the line.

“We hurt them in every which way possible, after a poor start. The reaction to that was really good and that’s our best half of the season so far.”

Cheltenham had conceded after only four minutes, but they stormed back to lead 3-1 at the break.

“We didn’t start the second half particularly well either and it’s difficult to wrestle that momentum back,” Duff added.

“Exeter had nothing to lose at that point, so they were coming on really, really strong.

“The goals that we’ve given up today were really poor, which is unlike us but of all the games we’ve had it’s been the most entertaining and luckily supporters were in.”

Exeter took an early lead through Archie Collins’ deflected shot in the fourth minute.

But it was cancelled out within three minutes when Matty Blair’s ball was helped on by Finn Azaz and Sercombe found the top-left corner.

Alfie May added the second in the 13th minute, slamming the ball home after Will Boyle and George Lloyd both had shots blocked in the box.

Boyle headed a Ben Tozer cross against the crossbar, but Cheltenham extended their lead deep in first-half stoppage-time.

Lloyd was tripped by Pierce Sweeney in the box and Sercombe smashed home the resulting penalty from the spot.

Exeter started the second half well and pulled one back in the 56th minute when Nicky Law’s low ball was touched in by Matt Jay.

But Cheltenham pulled two goals clear again in the 77th minute when Charlie Raglan nodded Chris Hussey’s corner into the middle and Andy Williams headed in his sixth of the league campaign.

Law set up a tense finish by capitalising on a mistake from Boyle and finding the bottom-left corner with two minutes left, but Cheltenham made sure of the points through Boyle’s injury-time goal from close range to round off the scoring.

Exeter boss Matt Taylor admitted his team were poor defensively, undermining their attacking strength.

“We were short in all departments,” he said.

“I was really pleased to see us score three goals against a well-drilled side, but to ship five was worrying.

“Teams won’t score – or will rarely score – three goals against Cheltenham this season.

“It doesn’t matter that we’ve scored more goals than any other team in the league, we’ve conceded far too many.

“I don’t want to take anything away from our attacking prowess, but we’ve got to do better defensively.

“Cheltenham are a physical side but if we can’t stand up to that physical presence we have to use the ball better and we didn’t today.”