Tom Newey felt the hard work put in during pre-season is beginning to pay off as Oxford United drew 1-1 with Birmingham City.

The U’s rose to the challenge provided by the Championship side on Saturday, producing their best performance in pre-season by some distance.

Deane Smalley put the hosts in front at the Kassam Stadium with an eye-catching solo effort, before Adam McGurk levelled before the break.

Newey was delighted with the overall display after a month of tough training.

He said: “I think you can see we’ve put the work in during pre-season.

“It’s pretty evident that it’s been a gruelling one, but we matched a Championship team, so we can’t really ask for more.

“I’m very happy with the performance, both individually and collectively.”

The only irritation for the left back was Birmingham’s equaliser.

United have yet to keep a clean sheet in four friendly matches so far, and Newey admitted there were still areas to fine tune before the Sky Bet League Two season begins on August 3.

“It is frustrating because you ask the referee before half time how long is left and he says five minutes,” he said.

“As a defensive unit you say to each other keep it tight, but we switched off for a second and got punished.

“It was a bit of decent play but also some sloppy defending collectively as well, so that’s something we’ll work on.

“Teams like that will punish you, but we’re not going to come up against teams like that every week.”

As one of the squad’s summer signings, it was Newey’s first taste of the Kassam Stadium as a United player.

He was voted man of the match by the sponsors and cannot wait to begin the league campaign.

“The pitch is lovely and I can imagine when there are 6,000 or 7,000 here it will be a good place to play your football,” he said.

“If we do well at the start of the season and really get the fans behind us it will be intimidating for other teams.”