Bristol City 5-1 Oxford United: Robins cruise through in Carabao Cup
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Jason Knight was signed by Bristol City from Derby County earlier this summer
Jason Knight scored twice as Bristol City eased past Oxford United with an emphatic victory to reach the second round of the Carabao Cup.
Any hopes the 1986 League Cup winners had of progressing beyond the opening round were extinguished by some clinical finishing by the Championship side.
City began the match facing the prospect of losing Alex Scott to Bournemouth for £20m, but their dominance against their lower league opponents was never challenged.
The hosts broke the deadlock after just 15 minutes. Anis Mehmeti combined with Haydon Roberts down the left-hand side, before the latter pulled the ball back for Harry Cornick to fire home from close range.
League One Oxford equalised on the half-hour mark. Fin Stevens floated a cross from the right wing to the back post and Billy Bodin powered a lovely header past keeper Max O'Leary.
Oxford's parity was short-lived. Mehmeti's cross was deflected into the path of Knight, who buried it from 12 yards out for his first Robins goal.
Knight added a third two minutes after the break, before Nakhi Wells put the game beyond doubt with City's fourth, on 52 minutes. He coolly rounded keeper James Beadle after being played in by Knight.
By now it was becoming an exercise in damage limitation for the visitors.
Their misery was completed when City scored their fifth courtesy of substitute Kai Naismith a couple of minutes after the hour mark.
George Tanner went close to making it six during injury time, but his long-range shot was tipped away by Beadle.
The Robins will now go on to face either Queens Park Rangers or Norwich City in round two.
Bristol City manager Nigel Pearson:
"I'm delighted for the players. One difference from our opening league match on Saturday was that our full-backs were more positive in getting forward.
"The scoreline sounds comprehensive, but Oxford were always in the game and caused us some problems.
"We were able to penetrate down the flanks and got in plenty of crosses, which wasn't the case on Saturday.
"It's always nice to blood young players and we were able to send on Ephraim Yeboah at a good time in the game for him. The hard work starts for Ephraim now."
Oxford United boss Liam Manning:
"What you can't do is give away poor goals at crucial times. I think we conceded one minute and six seconds into the second half. After that, we were taught a lesson by a very strong Championship side.
"It gets to a point where it's damage limitation and players have to dig in for the good of the team. We did such good work in pre-season and even tonight there were signs of quality.
"The biggest thing now is how we respond and I expect to see a reaction from my players at the weekend.
"It was a bit of a mixed bag for us really. We could have been three up before they scored and I thought the players carried out the game plan well for most of the first half."