Johnnie Jackson will make a late call to decide if our top scorer James Tilley is fit enough to face Tranmere Rovers on Saturday.
The attacking midfielder has scored eight goals in his 11 appearances so far this season since his summer arrival from Crawley Town. However, he missed last week’s 3-1 victory at Walsall with a dead leg.
“Hopefully he’ll be involved,” said Johnnie. "We’ll look at how he’s come through training this week. Do we get him back involved? Is he one for the bench? That’s a decision closer to kick-off we’ll have to make.
“We were disappointed he had to miss out last week. Connor Evans proved to be an able deputy, but ‘Tills’ has been a really important player for us.”
Johnnie yet again has the luxury of a near fully fit squad to pick from, but with that comes an increasing selection headache.
“I keep saying it’s not only a really difficult 11 to pick, but a difficult 18 to name too,” said Johnnie. “We’re having to leave good players out and that’s the difficult part of the job for me.
“Those conversations have been really tough because the intensity in training has been really good. Everyone wants to play and is making a case to be included. Those that are in the team know they’ve got to put a shift in, because there’s someone ready to take your place - that’s what breeds competition. Some people have got to miss out, but that’s football.”
“The clear weeks – the ones where you don’t have a midweek fixture - are really good, because you can really focus on the work you are doing on the grass. You can have a real intensity about the sessions and go in-depth, whereas Friday is a lighter session.
“It’s also important for recovery and the time on the grass is minimal. We’ve utilised the week well, we’ve got a lot of work in and worked on things that Tranmere will do. The boys are ready.”
Johnnie will know his opposite number in the technical area very well. Nigel Adkins took over the role as manager of Tranmere on an interim basis recently and although second from bottom, they beat Accrington Stanley 2-0 in their last outing.
“Nigel is someone I know very well, having worked with him at my last club,” said Johnnie. “He’ll have his team right at it, set up well and difficult to beat.
“It wasn’t the longest of stints we had together at Charlton, but I learnt a lot off him in a short space of time.
“He stepped away from management for a while, but came back into it. He has so much experience in the game, but hopefully we still have some secrets and something up our sleeve for him!
“I’ve seen the game against Accrington and they played really well that day, there’s no 'gimmes' in this league. They made a poor start, but with a change of manager it’s had an immediate effect. We’re at home and we want to take the game to them.
“I think we’ve been playing well at home, but the wins haven’t come yet. I think it’s really important, off the back of last week, that we go for back-to-back victories. It doesn’t matter where we pick the points up though, we just want to get on a run now and build momentum. The way you get up the table is by consolidating.”
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Photos: Pro Sports Images.