MANAGER Jim Smith is convinced his Oxford United side are equipped to deal with what looks like their biggest test tonight, when they visit Stevenage Borough in front of the Setanta cameras.

Stevenage, last season's FA Trophy winners, and Oxford, who finished runners-up behind Dagenham, were co-favourites for the Blue Square Premier title before the start of this campaign.

And both have made good starts with three wins out of four.

United made ridiculously hard work of beating an average Stafford Rangers team 2-1 at the Kassam Stadium on Saturday, but Smith believes the players are quite capable of stepping up a couple of gears, as they will probably need to this evening, at Broadhall Way.

"We've now got a big game at Stevenage," Smith said after Saturday's victory.

"Darren (Patterson) went to watch them at Kidderminster, and they didn't have one corner or free-kick in an attacking area, yet they won 2-0.

"I saw them against Histon the other week at home - they're a footballing side, with two lively front men.

"But I'm convinced that if we play to our best we'll be hard to beat by anybody."

Carl Pettefer, rested against Stafford, could return to the midfield tonight, and Smith is likely to give serious thought to whether to recall Rob Duffy up front.

Yemi Odubade, who squandered three great chances to kill off Stafford after Phil Trainer hit a brace either side of half-time, could miss out.

Smith said: "It was a great strike for Phil's second goal, we were 2-0 up and playing some great football, but then all our faults came back.

"We made life difficult for ourselves - it should have been a cruise.

"What we do about our finishing, I don't know. It's a big problem."

Odubade's pace is a big asset to the team, but his goals per shots ratio is disappointing.

Smith admitted: "We were wanting Yemi to cross it for Twiggy, but instead people were crossing it for Yemi and he's not a good finisher.

"Marvin Robinson came on as well and had a great chance - I don't know how he missed. From two yards out you've got to put it in the back of the net.

"That's a little concern to me, because that's what cost us promotion last year."

Trainer's goals 30 seconds before the break and 19 seconds into the second half were his first in the league since he joined the U's from Moor Green in the summer.

And the manager said: "Phil was a big positive to come out of the game for us, and one of the few, along with Eddie Hutchinson, who was outstanding, and Danny Rose in the second half.

"With our first goal, that was about the only time we played any real football in the first half, and we got the goal. In the second half we played well, we just couldn't finish.

"And with the goal we let in, the ball went through the wall and the keeper could probably have done better, though I'll need to look at that on the video. It didn't look as if it could reach the goal, never mind score.

"We made hard work of it . . . it should have been a relatively easy afternoon. We know we can do better but the conditions didn't help. it was seriously hot out there."

The U's played some excellent football, which made it all the more frustrating that they couldn't finish it off, against a team who have yet to pick up a point.

"When we pass the ball around, as we did in the second half, we looked good," Smith agreed. "There was some super football spoiled by not being able to put the ball in the net. Maybe it was the final pass sometimes, but in the main it was bad finishing.

"Some of the football in the second half was first class. in the first half I thought we passed it around too negatively, we weren't going into forward enough positions.

"Once we got the second goal, we should have gone on. Credit to them, they made two or three changes and a couple younger, livelier ones came on and we sat back a little.

"But at least we got the three points and the win's vital at this stage. In the past we have drawn the odd game like this."