MICHAEL Appleton declared Oxford United were ready for the competitive football to start after they outplayed Coventry City without getting their rewards in a goalless draw.

The U’s created the vast majority of the chances in their final pre-season workout, hitting the woodwork three times and missing a penalty through Danny Hylton.

Although goals did not flow, the overall performance was excellent in a friendly played at Nuneaton Town’s Liberty Way due to the Kassam Stadium pitch being relaid.

Appleton was happy with the display and even felt there was a benefit to United’s failure to turn chances into goals ahead of their opening Sky Bet League Two clash at home to Crawley Town this Saturday.

“It’s a balancing act,” the head coach said.

“If you win the game 3-0 or 4-0, do the players go into the opening game over-confident and thinking it’s going to be a breeze?

“Things happen for a reason and maybe that was the reason.

“We’ll still have an edge about us hopefully going into the game.

“The biggest thing for me is we certainly look ready and we’ll be chomping at the bit next Saturday.”

United’s efforts were also praised by Coventry boss Tony Mowbray, who felt his League One side were well off the pace.

He said: “It was an eye-opener for us because it shows how far away we are.

“We’ve played well in some of our games and perhaps not scored the goals we warranted, but we got a bit of a lesson from Oxford.

“They were very organised, very disciplined, denied us space to pass and we didn’t really have a Plan B.”

The only real concern for United was losing two players to injuries.

Liam Sercombe came off with a tight groin and Ryan Taylor limped out of the game with a rolled ankle.

More will be known about their condition today, but Appleton’s initial hopes were the pair could still be available to face Crawley.

He said: “The one with Sercs was hopefully more precautionary.

“He wanted to carry on because he felt OK, it was just a bit tight and we didn’t want to take any chances.

“Ryan’s done it apparently in the past and he doesn’t think it’s bad."

“We got him off as quick as we could and hopefully he’ll be available for next week.”