Goals from Martyn Woolford, Danny Parslow and Onome Sodje ended the Minstermen's three-game goal drought.

York will now try to overhaul a 2-0 deficit in Saturday's FA Trophy semi-final second leg against Torquay.

Walker told BBC Radio York: "It was a gritty three points, we can go on and hopefully do some damage on Saturday."

Having scored in all of Walker's first 17 games in charge, York had failed to find the net in their last three matches, so Walker agreed that the goals they scored against Exeter were more important than the two they let in.

If we can do that on Saturday we can raise the roof off here Colin Walker

"All we asked of them was a big effort, a big belief in what we were trying to do. We did play a little bit gung-ho at times. In the first half the two wingers did cause them a lot of problems."

York have one injury worry for the Torquay game. Centre-back Dave McGurk limped off with a calf injury. In his absence Walker could repeat the 4-4-2 formation he used against Exeter, with Darren Kelly replacing McGurk.

Walker said: "The biggest plus for me is that the players can now believe. In the first 30 minutes we went two up and that's the biggest thing we've got to take forward into Saturday. If we can do that on Saturday we can raise the roof off here.

"Now we've got a massive game and I'd just ask all the people listening [to this interview], come on, let's get down, let's give Torquay a game, and I'm sure we can do that."