United play their second Papa Johns Trophy group game tonight, with Fleetwood Town the visitors to Brunton Park.
“We want to win tonight,” manager Paul Simpson said. “I’m also aware that I’ve got to give everybody a game and keep everybody right.
“In this run that we’ve got coming with the midweek games we have to keep everybody up to speed. There will be changes, because of the injuries we have with Dev, Edmo and others, we just need to make sure that we have everybody at it.
“It gives us the opportunity to get players up to match speed, and some who played on Saturday will have to go again on Tuesday. I want to win it because I want to keep the momentum going.
“As soon as we know fixture dates we have half an eye on what the teams are going to look like for those games, depending on injuries. And, as I say, we want others to stay up to speed with match fitness.
“We have so many games in quick succession where one or more of them may be called upon. It’s unfair of me and the rest of the staff to expect them to go into the hurly burly of a league game and they haven’t played for weeks on end.
“So this is a great opportunity against a good team. I think it’ll be a tough game. They’ve got some good players. Fleetwood changed a lot out of the 18 against Barrow, they had one player from the previous league game who played in their last Trophy game.
“I imagine they’ll make changes. We need to win the game because I want to stay in the competition. It’s a good competition to be involved in, and we’ll see who’s fit and who’s not as we go into it.
“Whoever we pick, I want them to do everything they possibly to show me they’re ready, they’re fit, they’re strong enough, they’re clear in their mind about how they play, and that they’re capable of going out and performing.
“I’m seeing it in training, their attitude is absolutely first class. We’d had an in-house 11v11 game when the Harrogate game was called off, with the death of the Queen. It was a really good standard, and that’s what we have to have.
“One to 11, the starters in the league game, that takes care of itself. It’s the 12 to 22-23-24 who have to make sure they’re right and we keep looking after them.”
And it’s another game where he wants a performance for the fans who turn out.
“Let’s hope they come again on Tuesday, even though I know there won’t be 5,000,” he concluded. “Let’s get some support and keep it going.
“We have two really tough away games in the league to come and we’ve just got to make sure that we dust ourselves down, get everybody right and hope that the support comes in and keeps following us.”