Johnnie Jackson is hopeful that Ethan Chislett and Josh Davison will be fit for tonight’s visit of leaders Leyton Orient to the Cherry Red Records Stadium.
“Josh took a nasty whack to his glute and lower back area,” said Johnnie of our striker who has just been nominated for the Sky Bet League Two Player of the Month for October. “He came away from the game really sore, so we’ve had to look after him and hopefully by resting up he can make it, but it’s a pretty sore one.”
“Ethan took a knock in the Harrogate game. It was when we felt he should have had a penalty in that match, and he took a nasty whack to his shin. It’s been causing him a few issues and he felt it was a bit too sore to be involved at the weekend, so we chose not to involve him and we had one eye on the Leyton Orient game. Hopefully, he’ll come through and be available.”
While Johnnie will have to make late calls on midfielder Ethan and top scorer Josh, he will have on-loan forward Kyle Hudlin available again after missing the draw at Weymouth in the FA Cup.
“We weren’t given permission by Huddersfield to involve Kyle,” said Johnnie. “That’s their prerogative. We were disappointed we couldn’t choose him, as it could have been a game when he came on and made an impact.
“He’s back with the group. He came on in the last league game at home to Harrogate and had a real positive impact along with the other subs that day. Kyle trained well with the group and will be back involved.”
Johnnie has been impressed with tonight’s visitors from across London who have lost only once in League Two this season, at home to Newport County at the start of last month.
“Motivation shouldn’t be needed,” said Johnnie. “It’s a big game for us. Leyton Orient have started great and are top of the league and rightfully so. They’ve played some really good stuff and got good results.
"It’s a good opportunity to test ourselves against a side at the end of the league where we want to be, so I’m really looking forward to it and I know the players are. We go into it on a decent run of form, unbeaten in five, and we want to keep that going. It’s a great opportunity for us.
“Richie Wellens has got a really good rota of players to choose from. There’s a lot of freshness about them, as they’ve not had many injuries. They come into it in good nick and his teams always want to play. They want to play out from the back, through the lines, and this team is no different. We’re well aware of their threats and the areas we feel we can exploit.”
You can see the full preview with our Manager Johnnie Jackson below, via the link to our official YouTube channel.