THE mutual respect between George Baldock and Oxford United will be put to one side tomorrow.

Few loan signings have become as popular as the right back, who made 47 starts in two spells at United.

Baldock featured prominently in their promotion challenge before being recalled by parent club Milton Keynes Dons in January.

The 23-year-old is looking forward to seeing his former teammates, but hopes they come off second best at Stadium MK.

He told the MK Citizen: “Seeing some familiar faces will be nice, but all the friendships will be out the window come Saturday.

“I can’t speak highly enough of Oxford, the staff, the fans and the rest of the players.

“I’d really like to see them do well.

“They’ve got some really good players, they’ve recruited really well too.

“They’ve just come off a huge win at Swindon, but the manager there will have them in the right frame of mind for their game here.”

The sentiments are echoed by U’s head coach Michael Appleton, who will be attempting to find Baldock’s weaknesses.

He said: “George hasn’t got many.

“He’s one of the best one-versus-one defenders I’ve seen, when someone is running at him he very rarely gets beaten.

“He’s as good as anything I’ve seen outside the Premier League, in my opinion.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for him, but that stops at 3pm on Saturday.

“We’ll make sure we make his life as difficult as we possibly can.”