Oxford United have a score to settle at Rushden tomorrow.

And they've got more than enough former Diamond geezers who will be eager to prove a point!

Few United fans will forget the traumatic day at Nene Park in January this year when former boss Brian Talbot took leave of his senses with his team selection, and Oxford found themselves 3-0 down after 22 minutes.

Some felt they never really recovered from what was a humiliating defeat against the Football League's bottom team.

Until that day, Rushden had managed only two home wins all season.

Oxford, for their part, had been 14th in the League Two table after winning at Chester at the start of the month, and were 16th going into the Rushden game.

But the defeat proved so shattering to morale that the team went on a steady downward slide that eventually cost Talbot his job and ended with relegation at the end of the season.

Whether he was under instructions from chairman Firoz Kassam or not has never really been established, but Talbot had already left United fans very upset and confused.

He offloaded Chris Hackett and Craig Davies two players with real pace, and announced that Lee Bradbury wouldn't play again because, if he did, the terms of his contract entitled him to a year's extension.

But U's supporters at Nene Park on January 28 were simply gobsmacked by the manager's team selection against his old club.

He brought Jamie Brooks in from the cold, when he wasn't match fit or match sharp, to play on the left wing, and behind him at left back was his new signing, Andy Burgess, the team's most creative midfielder.

And up front, the U's had a strikeforce of new boy Yemi Odubade and on-loan Neville Roach.

Jon Ashton was used at right back, and had a nightmare, though nothing compared to that of John Dempster, on his debut, at his old club. Dempster was sent off in the second half.

Odubade was taken off after 33 minutes but it could just as easily have been Roach.

"All you can say is that they beat us up really," Talbot said afterwards. "It was like a knife through butter with some of our defending.

"I won't duck any bullets, it was disappointing and poor, and at the end of the day, the manager's got to take responsibility.

Within six weeks, he was gone.

Jim Smith's team tomorrow is unlikely to be so experimental or contro- versial.

And all of those players who started that match last season - and those, like Steve Basham, who didn't - will be out to prove a point.

Rushden were a poor side last year and they've had an equally torrid time this campaign, dropping out of the League alongside Oxford, but looking enviously south at the way United have been rejuvenated and have bounced back to lead the table - while they lie joint bottom with Southport.

There are seven at Oxford who used to be with Rushden - players Burgess, Dempster, Billy Turley, Barry Quinn, Rob Duffy and Marvin Robinson, and goalkeeping coach Alan Hodgkinson.

In addition, Gavin Johnson, Chris Willmott and Chris Hargreaves all used to play at neighbouring Northampton.

Smith laughed: "Every club in our league has ten people from Rushden, I think everybody in the world's played for Rushden at some point!

"But obviously we have got a big representation of people from that area.

"Hopefully they'll respond to that and give the performance that we know they're capable of."

Despite the slight blip the U's have had over the last three weeks, Smith is hardly quaking in his boots.

He said, with tongue-in-cheek: "We've had a really bad time, I think we've lost one in 21 so we're really nervous about every game! We'll just do our best."