Oxford boss Buckingham on 'wonderful' Norwich City opener

The Canaries will travel to the Kassam Stadium for the first time in a competitive fixture on the first day of the campaign. The last time the sides met was back in 1999, when City recorded a 4-2 victory over the U's. 

Oxford gained promotion to the Championship via the League One play-off final back in May as ex-Norwich winger Josh Murphy fired them to victory over Bolton. 

Buckingham, a boyhood Oxford fan, is excited by the prospect of testing himself against the Canaries. 

"To start at home against a very good Norwich side is a wonderful start for us. Norwich did extremely well last year. They will have been disappointed not to have gone up. 

"We watched a lot of their games, as you do, and to be able to bring them to the Kassam will be a really good opening test for us," the Oxford boss told the club's channels.

“To now be able to bring the calibre of teams that we will be able to bring to the Kassam and challenge our club against the teams that the fixture list throws at us, is a really exciting one for us to look forward to."

Buckingham has vowed that Oxford will look to attack the Championship head-on as they seek to defy the odds and stay in the second tier. 

Oxford United were promoted to the Championship via the League One play-offs. (Image: PA Images)

“You go into these types of games where you’re probably seen as the underdog in a lot of these fixtures, but if you use Wembley as an example, we were perceived in that manner externally, so it’s one where we’ll do as much as we can to be ready," he said.

“I’m not a coach that wants us to sit back and defend, and try not to lose games, and I don’t care whether that’s League One or the Championship.

“I’m also not naive enough to think that we’ll have to be smart in how we set up, and the recruitment we do now to complement the players we have, and to allow us to play the way we want.”