JAMIE Lambert has admitted he dearly wants to put one over his old club when Oxford United visit Reading in SKY's live Sunday morning game.

And the 26-year-old midfielder says he doesn't mind whether he plays on the wing, in a more central midfield role or up front, as he has done in the last two games.

"I don't mind where I am - I just want to play against Reading," said the Henley-born player.

"I want to show them that it was a mistake letting me go and I'm at Oxford now and I just want to get three points against them."

Lambert's sensational first goal for the club after just 17 seconds against Colchester on Tuesday has surely cemented his prospects of playing as a striker, even though Steve Anthrobus is starting to recover from his thigh injury.

Soon after he joined the U's, Lambert criticised The Royals for the way the manager when he was there, Tommy Burns, effectively kicked him out and also discarded several other talented footballers, replacing them with little-known Scottish players who weren't anywhere near as good.

And Lambert has been proved right, with Burns getting the sack and several of his signings proving failures.

Lambert said: "I've got a lot of mates at Reading. Obviously, the manager's changed now.

"I had a problem with the previous one. There's not so much of an axe to grind now but I certainly want to do well against my old club."

After his first outing up front, against Morecambe, he said: "It's a little bit different but I played there for the reserves last week and I have played off a big target man before."

Centre back Steve Davis came through unscathed yesterday's reserve game at Fulham to prove his fitness for Sunday.

Story date: Thursday 04 November

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.