A Friday afternoon scan confirmed that winger Brennan Dickenson has a problem in his knee that will need treatment, but United boss Keith Millen revealed that he’ll be talking to the player and his medical staff about the best course of action.
“He’s had a scan, there is a problem with his knee, but we’ve got to have a discussion on whether he can continue with it to the end of the season or not,” he said. “That’s something I need to speak to him about on Monday.
“Other than that, a lot of our injuries are longer-term. It’s an unbelievable run, within a few weeks, we’ve got five or six senior players out.
“Any team will struggle with that. The good thing is that we’ve got new players coming in, they’re looking fresher and fitter.
“Tobi’s scored his first goal, which is great, that will give him confidence, and Omari looks dangerous. There are positives and there’s plenty of work to do.”
“Corey Whelan, to be fair, showed the spirit we need because he was struggling at half-time on Saturday,” he added. “He was limping but he didn’t want to come off.
“You want to see that, so we’ve got a week until the next game and a lot of work to do with everyone to develop that mindset.
“I’m definitely seeing enough for us to be ok because we’re getting fight and commitment. We weren’t second best when we have been against some of the bigger and stronger teams.
“That might happen again between now and the end of the season, but there’s enough teams around us that we can compete with. Hopefully we can get some players fit soon, as other improve and learn more, so I can only see us getting better.
“It’s good that we have a week on the training pitch now. I think this will be the only week for a while because we’ve got quite a few midweek games after that.
“Well done for fighting back at the weekend, we have to acknowledge that, but they have to realise we’ve got a lot of work to do. When I said that to them, they all agreed. They know we’re nowhere near where we need to be, but we do have things to build on.
“The biggest positive, apart from the two goals, was their attitude not to give in. you’re going to need that. We will need that. Our heads didn’t drop.
“I thought we got a bit nervous when they equalised, which is a bit natural, but at least we kept going. When you have that enthusiasm you’ve got a chance.”
Saturday also brought the first use of a 5-3-2 formation under the manager, which gave him plenty of food for thought.
“I don’t like changing shapes too much, but I didn’t think the game was about shape, it was more about commitment and fight,” he commented. “That was needed and it doesn’t matter if you play a back four or a back five, if you’re second best you’re going to lose.
“I want us to compete and if I need to put my strongest players in their best positions then they’re the decisions I’ll make.
“I’ve seen enough of the league now to know we can compete with most. There are certain teams I think are stronger than us but there’s no reason we can’t beat them.
“If you look at the results we’ve had on the good run we were on, those are mainly against teams around us. They’ll be looking at it the same as we are.
“There are probably 12 teams all very similar, and we’ve got to be better than two others. We’re not kidding ourselves, we’ve got a lot of work to do, but the spirit of the lads has given me a lot of encouragement.”
