Idris El Mizouni scored his first goal for the U’s three minutes into the second half, as United continued their perfect start on home soil.

The U’s have now claimed three wins from three in their opening home matches in Sky Bet Championship, and continue to impress with the way they approach games.

United head coach Buckingham said: “There’s a lot of hard work that goes into what you’ve just seen, both from the players and the staff.

“I think everyone will look at the scoreline, and that’s what’s going to keep us in this league all the way through, I get that, but the pleasing thing for me is the performance, certainly in the second half.

“In the first half, we had a very good Stoke team here, another wonderful side, and it was an evenly balanced game.

“In the second half, some of the football we played for a period of 20 to 25 minutes, which involved the goal as well, was really pleasing and exciting to watch from the sidelines.

“You get a sense of that in the stadium, and that’s probably the pleasing thing for me. The performance will always come before the result for me, but if we can play that way more often, we will come away with more results.”

He added: “We work hard all week. We’ve got a way that we want to play, and I think I sound like a broken record when I keep saying that, but that way is important in putting a framework around what that looks like.

“What I don’t want to do is have our players become robotic, and hopefully my job as a coach, and our job as a staff group, is to put a framework around this playing group, which will allow them to understand what we’re trying to do collectively, but also allows them to really showcase themselves individually within that.

“That’s the pleasing thing today, I saw some really exciting play individually, but an understanding collectively of what we’re trying to do

“I’d rather us play with that freedom and that excitement, and stick true to those principles that we have, whether it’s the hard work or other things that we’ve agreed on, and the togetherness that we have.

“I’d rather the players were themselves, and expressed themselves, but do it within that framework they understand because that’s the type of coach I am.

“I don’t want to be a coach that sits back and defends. It makes things boring. Sometimes that will come back to bite us and we won’t come away with a result, I get that, but I’ve coached for a long time now, and I don’t think I’ll change that.”