LIAM Manning was pleased with what he saw from his Oxford United side in the first half as they were held to a goalless draw in their opening public pre-season friendly.

United made the trip to Vanarama National League outfit Eastleigh following wins behind closed doors against a Southampton B side and Barnet.

While the goals flowed in those encounters, with three put past the Saints and five scored against the Bees, the U’s were unable to take advantages of chances in the opening 45 minutes in Hampshire.

Read the match report here

Speaking after the final whistle, United head coach Manning said: “First and foremost, it was a good game and there’s a huge amount of positives to take from the first half.

“We’ve had three weeks of training where we’ve worked on certain bits, and we’ve still obviously got work to do.

“The good thing is when you step into the games at a good set-up like this, it’s a good opportunity to see if they’ve taken on board the work we’ve done, and you could really see that in the first half.

“We had really good control and the lads said at half-time there was only a five-minute period where momentum shifted in their favour.

“For 40 minutes, it was pretty much us dominating. We had two one v ones that we missed and some really good opportunities.

“In the second half, it was a little bit scrappy and disjointed, and the shape went a little bit in terms of what we wanted to look like, but at the same point, Beads [James Beadle] hasn’t had a save to make the whole game and we’ve had a couple of decent chances in the second half as well.

“On the whole, it was a really good exercise where we can take a lot from it.”

He added: “I’m really pleased with the block element and the out of possession, and the control we had without the ball was terrific.

“What you’re starting to see now is the in possession, ultimately we want to have 50 to 60 per cent of possession, and dominate it to create chances.”

For Manning and his U’s side, pre-season gears up this week as the club welcomes Sky Bet Championship side Swansea City to Oxfordshire on Friday evening, before another behind closed doors clash, this time away against second tier Bristol City on Saturday afternoon.

“We’ve got a busy week in terms of games,” Manning said.

“We have that many throughout the season, we don’t always get the training time to prioritise having a few weeks of training.

“We’ve got a decent, competitive programme this week and then it’ll be a case of developing relationships, connections and understanding with the new lads.”