Oxford United kicked off their new Championship campaign in style with a 2-0 win over Norwich.
Goals from Mark Harris and Cameron Brannagan were enough to earn the U’s three points in their first second-tier game in 25 years.
Here are three talking points from the game.
Starting Line-Up
Des Buckingham has fielded a similar side in the two most recent friendlies so the starting lineup was pretty much as expected.
Jamie Cumming started in goal, a position which appears to be for him to lose, but the one change came at right-back with Sam Long starting in place of Peter Kioso. The rest of the backline remained the same, with Joe Bennett on the left and Ciaron Brown and Elliott Moore in the middle.
Will Vaulks started in the holding role which allowed space and attacking freedom for Brannagan and Ruben Rodrigues, who sat just in front.
Harris led the line with summer signing Przemyslaw Placheta on the left and Tyler Goodrham on the right.
The bench featured five new summer signings, which we’ll get to later.
Fantastic Press
Oxford’s performance against Bolton in the League One playoff final was perfectly executed, and it was a similar example against the Canaries.
The occasion could have been overwhelming for the U’s but they didn’t look out of place against a team that finished in the Championship playoffs last season.
Like against Bolton, Oxford’s players knew when to press and put consistent pressure on the Norwich backline. This plan worked wonders and created several opportunities.
Summer Signings
Despite making 11 new additions so far in the summer transfer window, nine of the starting lineup also began the game at Wembley just 84 days prior.
Will Vaulks and Przemyslaw Placheta were the two new faces, although Jamie Cumming and Joe Bennett had since made a permanent return.
It shows two things. Firstly, the squad depth that Buckingham and Ed Waldron have built is looking healthy, but also that those League One players have made the step up a level with relative comfort (of course, there is a long way to go!)
On the bench were Matt Ingram, who will be battling Cumming for that number one spot, Peter Kioso, who would have been expected to start over Long and Idris El Mizouni, who replaced Placheta on 73 minutes, while Louie Sibley and Malcolm Ebiowei were unused substitutes.
