James Constable is hoping lightning can strike twice as the Oxford United striker eyes a place in the history books at Morecambe tomorrow.

The 29-year-old scored his 105th goal for the club in Tuesday night’s 3-2 defeat at Newport County.

He is now just three away from breaking United’s all-time scoring record, held by Graham Atkinson.

Tomorrow’s opponents hold good memories for Constable, whose only hat-trick in the century haul came against the Shrimps in a 4-0 win at the Kassam Stadium in 2010.

The No 9 has not scored more than once in a game for 14 months and would love to come back from the Lancashire coast with the record, although the priority is simply to win the game.

“It would be very nice,” said the striker nicknamed Beano.

“I haven’t scored more than once in a game this season and it’s been a while since I got a double.

“Obviously I’d love to get a hat-trick and break the record, but on the other side of it you’d hope if that happened we would have won the game.

“That’s the main thing, we just need to get back on track and it doesn’t matter how we do it, whether it’s a scrappy game or a scruffy goal.”

United’s midweek setback at Newport ended a club record 16 league games unbeaten on the road.

It was also only the side’s sixth Sky Bet League Two defeat of the campaign – a figure they reached before the end of September last season.

The promotion contenders have only lost back-to-back games once in this campaign, and Constable is well aware how vital it is to get back on track tomorrow.

He said: “The teams up there at the end of the season are going to be the ones that can turn it straight back round when they lose.

“If you get into a position where you’re picking up defeats, it can be a difficult league.

“That’s why it’s so competitive with a few points separating the top six.

“It’s always like that because you can get a couple of defeats and it can snowball quite quickly, so it’s important we make sure it doesn’t happen on Saturday and we put right what happened on Tuesday night.”