DES Buckingham hailed his Oxford United players who seamlessly transitioned to Sky Bet Championship football with a brilliant win at home against Norwich City.

The U’s head coach named nine of the 11 players who started at Wembley in the League One play-off final in his line-up against the Canaries, although the other two were unavailable to him anyway.

Josh Murphy left for Portsmouth earlier in the summer, and Owen Dale is currently out with a minor injury.

Summer signing Przemyslaw Placheta lined up on the left wing spot previously occupied by Murphy, while fellow new recruit Will Vaulks played in midfield, effectively pushing Tyler Goodrham onto the right-hand side vacated by Dale.

Goals from Mark Harris and Cameron Brannagan saw a dominant United get off to a dream start against the Canaries.

Buckingham said: “It was a great start. We said about coming into the game and not shying away from the level of competition, and trying to do it the way that we’ve worked on over the last six months.

“We spent two or three months leading into Wembley building something here, and when you come into so many unknowns, it’s really important that you stick to that identity. I’m delighted with the way we just performed.

“We’ve tried to build a side which will allow us to have depth, and add quality to what we already have, but we can’t ignore what we already have here.

“There have been a lot of players that have shown a real clear understanding of what we’re trying to do.

“When we looked at this game, we just felt that the relationships that they have, they deserved the chance to show that they can. I’m so pleased with what I’ve just watched.

“We’ve got 45 more of those, and they’ll all chuck different tests at us. We won’t get carried away, it’s a good start and I know the scoreline is what people will look at, but we’ll look at the performance and what we do, and how we do it.

“That for me was the most pleasing thing, that we’ve been able to showcase ourselves with and without the ball against what I’m sure is a team that will finish towards the top end of that table.”