WANDERERS could rest Dion Charles and Kyle Dempsey for the EFL Trophy game against Manchester United’s Under-21s.
Ian Evatt admitted a few of the players who were patched up to play against Peterborough United at the weekend may not be risked on Tuesday night as the Whites seek to all-but book their place in the next round with a win.
Charles played with a pain-killing injection in his shoulder and Dempsey has been nursing a back problem for a few weeks.
Speaking on Monday morning at the training ground, he said: “I don’t think we have any further injuries but there are players at the moment who are playing with issues, and having to do so because we have so many out.
“One or two of them could potentially have made their situation worse on Saturday, so we have a week to recover for the league game and we’ll pick a team which we think is healthy enough to win us the game tomorrow night.
“Hopefully we can get into the next round and then through those next three games because post-international break, all being well, we will have everyone back. That will be a huge boost, so we have to manage this next few games carefully.”
Wanderers held on with 10 men for the whole second half against Peterborough to claim a point after Gethin Jones’s dismissal.
Jones and George Thomason will be eligible to play against United and their suspensions will kick in from the weekend at Port Vale.
Looking back on the weekend’s performance, Evatt said: “In the circumstances it was a decent point. Obviously, we shot ourselves in the foot with the red card and having reviewed it, it was the right decision. My argument on the day wasn’t as much with that, it was more the consistency of the yellow cards, and my own, it was crazy.
“With 11 I genuinely believe we would have won the game. We were in the ascendancy at the point of the tackle, just scored and were starting to probe and find where the spaces were.
“When you go down to 10 against them they are really dangerous. If you open the game up too soon they can really hurt you. So we tried to do like Derby did to us, just make sure we were in the game, made it tight, and then hopefully get some moments in the last 15 minutes. I think we got those moments but we didn’t capitalise.”
Jones will miss three games after a rash challenge on winger Ricky Jade-Jones was punished with a straight red card by referee Ross Joyce.
Evatt initially wanted to review all available footage before deciding if an appeal could be made – but has now confirmed that Jones will serve the ban.
He said: “Other than us, they are the one team I wouldn’t want to go down to 10 men against, they are really dangerous and a potent attacking force. With a makeshift backline that hasn’t played together before, I think we dealt with it pretty well in the circumstances.
“It was a poor challenge by Geth and he held his hands up to that but the stadium reacted really well and we managed to get ourselves a very important point.
“I don’t think we delivered what we wanted to deliver. With 11 men I think we would have caused them problems in the second half, had opportunities to manage the ball and fatigue them, then take advantage. But it was nice to see a crowd that big, the backing of the players was fantastic, and it definitely helped them gain some extra energy to see it through the get the point.
“It was a positive day in that aspect but we know we can deliver more.”
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