United’s double-header in the play-offs against Bradford City should mean that defender Ben Barclay will be allowed to play, should his loan spell from Stockport be extended through the next few weeks.
“With us playing Bradford the good thing is Ben will be involved with us hopefully,” the manager confirmed.
“We need to extend that loan and hopefully they’ll allow us to do that, but we’ll wait and see. His long throw, we’d worked on it on Friday, and for a few games.
“Thankfully we had a little bit of luck. We haven’t had much luck over the last few weeks but we got a little bit at Sutton and it made a difference.
“But his loan still has to be finalised. All loans finish after the last game of the season. I’m presuming Greg [Abbott] will be onto that straight away to try and get that done.
“Now we’re not playing Stockport it should hopefully just be sorted. They’ve been very good for us this season, Stockport, hopefully they’ll be very good for us again.”
“At the moment everybody is involved, and that’s what we need,” he continued. “Everybody has got a part to play. That will take care of itself.
“Looking at it, we’ve had a squad of 19 have travelled, Josh Dixon was our 19th man. Brennan Dickenson, it was too early for him in my opinion.
“We’ve still got JK and Jon Mellish suspended for the first leg, JK will be available for the second. This is the group, we aren’t going to get any support from anywhere else.
“Whether it’s retain or release, they’re with us, they’re staying. Whatever happens we’ve got an opportunity to finish this season really well, and we’ve got to give ourselves the best chance.”
And Monday saw Boro loanee Jack Robinson make his first start as he filled in at left wing back.
“I thought he did ok, to be fair to him,” he told us. “There were a couple of times he got himself into the final third and was up against a really difficult opponent in David Ajoboye. He stuck to it well.
“I took him off because I wanted to change the shape and be a bit more front foot and positive. I thought it was important to go to a three to make sure we stayed in the game, because they’re quite direct.
“Unfortunately we gave away a bit of a soft goal and we gave them a lift. We lit the fire a little bit with the crowd, who were coming along for a little end of season party, and we got them going again. Thankfully second half we were able to lift our performance and be better."
