Oxford boss Des Buckingham is tipping Norwich City to be in the promotion shake up, despite inflicting a 2-0 Championship defeat on the Canaries.

Buckingham led the newly-promoted club to a comfortable opening day win, in Oxford’s return to the second tier of English football after a 25-year gap.

Johannes Hoff Thorup’s squad, minus the absent Jon Rowe and also missing summer defensive signings Jose Cordoba and Ben Chrisene on fitness grounds, were well short at the Kassam.

“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,” said Buckingham, quoted by the Oxford Mail. “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.”