Oxford United look to bounce back from last week's FA Cup defeat at Wycombe and set a new club record at Gravesend and Northfleet today.

If the U's can avoid defeat at Stonebridge Road, it will make it 19 league games unbeaten at the start of a season, beating the old mark of 18 set back in 1960-61.

"We knew we'd have to lose at some stage and now it's all about how we react to that," Smith said.

"We want to get back to winning ways straight away.

"It's so important that we get back on track, and after the end of one unbeaten run of 19 games, we now want to start another unbeaten run of 19 or 20 games.

"Mind you, the players are saying they're still unbeaten because they're only looking at the league!"

Smith has already said that new signing Jamie Slabber will go straight into the starting line-up, leaving the manager a choice between Steve Basham and Yemi Odubade as his partner.

There's a chance of leading scorer Rob Duffy being on the bench, with Smith wary of starting the game with him because his broken hand is still in a light cast.

Fit-again Andy Burgess (pictured) is set to return to the U's midfield, while Gavin Johnson is pushing for a recall after impressing as a substitute at Wycombe.

Former Oxford defender Paul McCarthy could line-up against his old team, providing he can shake off the injury that kept him out of last week's defeat at Cambridge.

Gravesend & Northfleet: (from) Cronin, Ricketts, Hawkins, Opinel, R Smith, McCarthy, Slatter, Keeling, Long, MacDonald, Sodje, De Bolla, Purcell, Ekoku, Ohakam, Mott.

Oxford Utd: (from) Turley, Anaclet, Willmott, Quinn, Gilchrist, Brevett, Pettefer, Hargreaves, Burgess, Slabber, Basham, Tardif, Hutchinson, Duffy, Johnson, Day, Odubade, Dempster, Kennet.