Johnnie Jackson will make a late choice on who’ll figure in goal for tomorrow’s short journey to Hertfordshire to face Stevenage.
New Zealand international Nik Tzanev returned on the bench for Easter Monday’s injury-time defeat at home to Salford City. He trained at our New Malden base today and is in contention, along with Nathan Broome who saved a penalty late on.
Young goalkeeper Spike Brits, who helped England under-16s to tournament success in France over the weekend, also worked with the group.
“Broomy has done well since he came into the team,” said Johnnie. “Nik is the first-choice goalie, so we’ll assess matters and then make the call on who plays.
“Aaron Pierre had to come off feeling his thigh, we’ve had to look after him since. We’ll make a late call on him. Everyone else has come through the week, but those with long-term injuries are still unavailable to us.”
Johnnie spoke about our approach to Saturday afternoon’s game at the Lamex Stadium, against a side fighting to go straight up. Ali Ali-Hamadi scored twice, but we were edged out 3-2 when we last met Stevenage at home at the end of February.
“Those two games over Easter weren’t a reflection of the games that I watched,” said Johnnie. “They reflected the last five minutes, but I have to wear that. We must find ways of dealing with it.
“There’s a lot of good things going on at this football club, not only on the pitch for long periods. Behind-the-scenes we’re moulding and shaping it to how we want.
“The feelings of hurt that we’ve had and the times that we’ve suffered this season won’t be in vain, they won’t be for nothing. As a football club, we’ve learnt a hell of a lot over two years and what’s required to achieve success."
On tomorrow’s tough challenge at the Lamex, Johnnie said: “Stevenage are a tough outfit to play against. They’re good at what they do and there’s a certain style that they play that makes it very difficult for their opponents. They put you under pressure with a lot of forward play and they’re very strong on set-pieces, long throws, and things like that.
“Ultimately, that was our undoing last time, but again in that game I felt we more than matched them and walked away with what we didn’t deserve. There’ll be more of the same from them, as they’re still well in the hunt for an automatic promotion place.
“They’ll be fired up for a big home game and it’ll be a big test for us, but a great test for us – especially coming off the back of two difficult results to take. It’ll be something for us to really get our teeth into.”
Listen in full below to Manager Johnnie Jackson at the training ground on Friday, via our official YouTube channel.