MICKEY Lewis was delighted to see Oxford United sign off their pre-season tour with a victory, while admitting there was still plenty of work to do before the League Two campaign begins.

Goals from Asa Hall and Sean Rigg gave the visitors a 2-1 win at Berwick Rangers on Saturday.

While Lewis acknowledged they had fallen short before the break, a victory was valued after drawing 1-1 at Alloa Athletic in the previous game.

“A lot of people say ‘it’s only pre-season’, but it was a real wrench losing a goal so late at Alloa, so it was really good to get a win,” said United’s No 2.

“Their goal was from a mistake. Lots of games are decided by mistakes so we need to cut them out.

“But I think after the first 20 minutes where we started slowly, perhaps their goal knocked us back a bit, I felt we pretty much controlled the game.

“We weren’t great in the first half but in the second half the tempo was much better.”

Hall, who equalised from the penalty spot, put the slow start down to the tough sessions the squad had done earlier in the tour.

He said: “There’s been a lot of hard work in the heat and I think maybe we needed a bit of time to get it out of our legs.

“Once we got through it I thought we played some nice stuff.”

With manager Chris Wilder away scouting elsewhere on Saturday, his deputy took charge of the side against Berwick.

The squad will return from Scotland this evening and assistant manager Lewis believes it was a worthwhile trip, especially in a group which has undergone a significant restructuring during the summer.

He said: “The games have been competitive and the players have worked really hard in hot conditions.

“It’s really important when you get a new players that they spend a lot of time together.

“When you come away you have no choice but to do that, so it’s been very good for that.”