MARK Yates was thrilled with the way Oxford United were contained by his Crawley Town side as the opening day fixture at the Kassam Stadium finished all-square.

The visitors packed men behind the ball and made it difficult for the U’s to find a rhythm, particularly in the first half.

Gwion Edwards’s header was cancelled out by Danny Hylton’s effort, but Yates was pleased to come away with a 1-1 draw against a side he believes will be among the promotion contenders.

He said: “It’s a really tough place to come and we’ve worked our socks off.

“We switched off once and got punished, but apart from that the boys absolutely nailed the game plan we had.

“It’s disappointing for them we couldn’t see the game out like I thought we deserved.

“We’ve limited them to two or three chances in the 90 minutes and they’re a team that are going to be up there come the end of the season, so we’ve not done too badly.”

Liam Sercombe made his United debut after joining from Exeter City in May and felt the hosts did not get the balance right in possession.

He said: “There’s ways of playing, times to go long and times to play.

“We’ve got to pick the right times and play through teams.

“We’ve got to play quickly. We’ve got the pitch for it now, we tried it and it moved very nicely.

“Hopefully we can do that a lot more.”

He added: “There’s nothing better than playing league games.

“It was good to get out there, hopefully the fans see a lot more of me.”