Michael Standing, who kicked off his career at Brighton, believes there are similarities between the south coast club and Oxford united.

The U's actually have a much bigger ground than Albion, whose Withdean Stadium could only hold 8,000, at a squeeze.

Standing says he has enjoyed his time so far with United, even though he has dropped a level from his last club Walsall.

"I've really enjoyed it, it's a good set-up. We're in the Conference league, that's what we have to accept, and we have to make sure we get out of it, but it's not a Conference club in the way that it's run, it's a big ground, with massive support.

"Brighton's a similar sort of club in that there are not that many teams around them, it's got a big catchment area and they've just got permission for a new stadium, and if it got on a run they could take off.

"They went through League Two and League One to Championship and this is the sort of club that could do that too. If Oxford got momentum, they could go through the leagues.

"You often find that, when you do that and you go up, the league above's not that much better, it's just starting it.

"Obviously there's only one place to go up (automatically) and from what I've seen I'd be surprised if there's a side better than us in this league.

But it's not about being the best side, it's about winning the league, and hopefully we can do that."

Standing is delighted just to be playing at the start of the season.

He added: "I didn't start the season anywhere last season so it's nice for me to get back playing the first game.

There's always a buzz at every ground in the country, all the fans are excited about what the new players are like, and I'm just looking forward to getting started."