Ryan Harley scored his tenth goal of the season with just eight minutes remaining on Saturday to spark scenes of celebrations rarely, if ever, seen at St James' Park as the Grecians left it typically late to secure League One football.
And the man responsible for securing trips to Wednesday and Argyle instead of Wycombe and Accrington is positive that next season will be far less of a struggle and that his side can finished above 18thin the npower League One table next season.
"Next year we are going to push on again," he said.
"I am not saying we are going to win the league but hopefully we can do a lot better than we did this season.
"With a bit of luck here and there we could have easily finished in mid-table.
"If you look at the likes of Brentford, you wouldn't call them a better team than us but they have ended up finishing ten points off the Play Offs, so who knows what can happen next season."
The modest midfielder was keen not to bask in the spotlight that comes with such a crucial goal, choosing instead to focus on the work done by his team-mates and manager.
"It is always nice to be the hero, if you like to call it that, but it was a team performance," he admitted.
"We have all been in it together this year and everyone is delighted.
"Everyone has been a hero and I have really enjoyed the last couple of months. A lot of people have said we aren't good enough to stay in League One but we know we are.
"Paul is a top manager and he deserves it for the way he has got us playing and the way we are trying to play. We have a lot of motivational chats in the last few weeks.
"I think we deserve it on the whole. It is brilliant for everyone here."
That 'everyone' includes the majority of the 8300 crowd who packed into The Park and helped suck the ball into the goal and Harley was keen to credit them for creating a cup-final atmosphere.
"The crowd were brilliant," he said.
"When we come out for the warm up there is normal a couple of thousand here but when we came out on Saturday the whole Big Bank was full. And it was a good lift for the lads.
"The fans had to get behind us due to the position we were in and everyone has worked hard."
