OXFORD United’s crunch clash with Gillingham will have an extra edge for Elliot Lee.

The Luton Town loanee, 26, is set to face 29-year-old brother Olly, a midfielder at the Kent club, for the first time in senior football this Saturday.

They both came through West Ham United’s youth set-up and were at Luton together in 2017/18, but have never lined up on opposite sides.

The stakes could hardly be higher, with the U’s seventh and three points shy of the play-offs, while a win would move Gillingham level with their hosts.

United’s Lee has hit the ground running since returning from injury over Easter and will be aiming to score for a third successive home game.

He is the son of former England midfielder Rob Lee and, while Covid will prevent family members coming to watch, U’s head coach Karl Robinson is looking forward to seeing how it plays out.

“It was incredibly pleasing he’s come in, he’s firing,” the U’s head coach said.

“I know his dad really well and I know he’d want to come and watch.

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“I said to him, ‘we’ll give you the team on Friday so you can tell your brother and they can have a bit of time to prepare’.

“It’ll create a little bit more needle in the game.”

United will be desperate to build on a hugely successful week that has sparked their play-off challenge back to life.

The U’s equalled their record Football League away win with a 6-0 thrashing of Crewe Alexandra on Saturday, before beating Shrewsbury Town 4-1 at the Kassam Stadium in midweek.

Remarkably, those ten goals were scored by ten different players, as Robinson’s side found a clinical edge they have lacked too many times in recent weeks.

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It has seen United climb five places in League One and they are within touching distance of the top six, although the teams above them have games in hand.

The U’s are still outsiders for a play-off spot, but Robinson disagrees that the pressure is off.

He said: “It’s irrelevant what the external messages are, the internal message is that the pressure’s on to win games of football.

“This football club has got tremendous history and an awful lot of people within Oxfordshire rooting for them.

“That never deteriorates – from our point of view, we know how hard we have to work to please the fans who watch us week-in, week-out.”