Since joining United full time from Derby in January, 28 year-old midfielder Paul Thirlwell has proved to be an integral part of United's promotion push and, as we found out, he's chomping at the bit to get back in the action.

"I'm just really glad I'm back," he said. "The lad's have done great in the three games I've missed, they've got three good wins and I hope that'll continue on Saturday. I've been down to the home games, and I was at Rotherham on Saturday, and I thought they did ever so well. Hopefully we can crack on from here."

Being forced in to a watching brief clearly hasn't filled him with joy: "I enjoyed it about as much as you can when you're out," he admitted. "Mind you, as long as we win then that's the main thing. Having watched the games it's clear that we've had a tremendous attitude in all of them, and we seem to have found that consistency we were looking for. At this stage of the season it doesn't even really matter what you might do right or wrong as long as you get the right result at the end of the 90 minutes. At the moment we're on a good run and it's something we have to keep doing between now and the end of the season."

For manager Neil McDonald, the return of Thirlwell causes quite a selection dilemma, but the player himself told us: "I'm just looking to impress - if I get back in that is. The first two games I missed were back to back on the Saturday and then the Monday, so there's that to be thankful for. It meant I wasn't out as long as I might've been. We've got three very tough games now, but we know that if we want to get in the play-off's then it's simply a case of getting our heads down and getting the wins. I think we're a match for anyone at the minute. Everyone's bouncing, and I'm sure we'll have an excellent crowd on Saturday, and obviously if we can get it down to the final day or whatever, then that would be great. There certainly isn't any fear though. There can't be - not when you've won five on the bounce. In fact, I think it's the other way round and teams perhaps worry about coming to play us."

What better time would there be for him to register his first goal for the club than upon his return ... "Oh yeah," he said. "We're still waiting. In fact, I've got used to waiting for them, there's no problem there! I tend not to score many because of the role I play in, but we're winning games and, as a team, we're scoring plenty. That can only be a good thing. As long as someone's scoring, then I'm happy with that."