Possibly the last thing the only team in League Two that faces Saturday-Tuesday fixtures all the way through to the last week of the campaign needed on Saturday was an early sending off, with players already faced with balancing the need for rehab and recovery with the equally important need to prepare fully and properly for each game that comes their way.
Looking at the fact that Rod McDonald’s 18th minute dismissal had meant an unscheduled switch of formation and personnel, manager Chris Beech said: “Not ideal, but I’m positive.
“It meant we had to bring Gime Toure off, and he’s now fresh. Nick Anderton is fresh, Aaron Hayden should be revitalised from his rest and coming back into the team, things like that.
“Lewis Alessandra has put a lot of hard miles in for us, he’s had a tight hamstring for a while, so he’s had a bit of a rest as well. Paul Farman’s back, but he hasn’t trained correctly, so he should be now in his full flow come Monday.
“So there are players coming back at the right time to support a real three-game hit that we have coming up.”
“As I’ve said before, these players are hurting that they aren’t winning games, but they can’t be feeling sorry for themselves,” he added. “If it doesn’t go their way, they need to understand why.
“I need to look at who is at it, who is ready for the fight, and pick a team to be competitive against Leyton Orient.
“If they want to feel sorry for themselves, do it in seven weeks’ time. There’s no time to do that now, we play every Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday, so there’s absolutely no time for that.
“We’re back at home for the next three, and we can’t ignore our excellent home form - points per game, without looking, it’s probably the best.
“But we need to make sure we take care of business when we get the chance to do it. It is coming thick and fast, but I’ll be optimistic and positive about the fact we’ll be going into all of them with the intention of getting the results we all want.”
