The U’s, playing in the second tier for the first time since the 1998/99 campaign, have won both their home matches so far this season, against Norwich City and Preston North End, while losing by one goal at Coventry City and Blackburn Rovers.

United’s next task is a home meeting with Stoke City, who have also won two and lost two from their opening four league games.

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U’s head coach Buckingham said: “I’d like to think now we’ve shown an account of ourselves, that people will come and know they’re in for a tough game, certainly at home when we get the fans and the atmosphere that it has been for the two games.

“We know against most of the teams in this league, we are going to come up against others who have far more resources, but that’s what makes this club what it is.

“We’ve got a lot of people here that do a lot of additional work, and a lot of people here that we try and use the skillsets of, to get further maybe than what one person could get us.

“I think that’s the beauty of this club, and always has been. While we’ve got that, and we draw upon that, it’ll put us in the best position to compete with the likes of those others.”

He added: “We know every game this year is going to be so tough and difficult, but this is one where we’ve done as much as we can to prepare ourselves.

“The pleasing thing over the four games is that we feel we should have more points than we have, and the other bit is around the performances.

“We wanted to show that we can compete at this level. We’ve been able to do that across those four games.

“We’ve got two good wins at home, to show that we can win at this level, but it’s been performances which have probably been the highlight for us.

“It’s a start and gives us an idea of where we are and where we need to be, and we’ve got a lot of tough tests to come.

“We know how harsh this league can be, but we also know we’ve set ourselves up as well as we can to put ourselves in the best position to get a result from a game.

“The things you may have got away with in League One, you certainly don’t get away with in this league.

“You get punished, and you can get punished quite quickly. Feet are very firmly on the floor, both from staff and players.”