It’s a bit of a weekend waiting game for manager Paul Simpson at the moment as he waits to see how much of an impact a sickness bug will have on team selection.
“As it stands at the moment we might only have 17 to pick from,” he said. “There’s a little bit of a sickness bug going around that we’re going to wait and see with.
“We’ve done some work today but it’s an either-or situation for who will start. We’re waiting to see who will come through overnight and whether there are any issues.
“We need to see if the energy is there and then we make decisions off that. We will have enough to get 11 out, and we’ll have numbers on the bench, but it might not be a full one. But we’re in a good position and hopefully it will stay that way.”
Having had to deal with a procession of illnesses throughout the season, he commented: “I can’t do anything about it, if I’m going to be honest with you.
“We have no more players who are back and ready to help this weekend. Ben Barclay, Ryan Edmondson, Jamie Devitt and Josh Dixon are all out training, Jamie did a bit of running, and was our spare player, but none of them are quite there yet.
“Ryan and Josh have trained fully, full contact, and Ben joined in today. They’re coming along but not quite there yet.
“Josh is still a number of weeks away from being considered, there's a possibility we might have him on the bench for the Cumberland Cup game on Tuesday with a view to getting him on for maybe 15 or 20 minutes at the end.
“We’ll see how Ryan Edmondson is, also with a view to Tuesday night. But it's probably a little bit too early and we have to be guided by the surgeon on Ryan because he had a surgical procedure when he did his shoulder.
“But they're all training, and if it's a week or if it's two weeks, then we've just got to be patient and wait for the right time to bring them back into it.
“I’m not prepared to take any risks by bringing any of them back too soon, and when you get a sickness and diarrhoea bug there’s just nothing you can do about it.
“We have to deal with it and the good thing is it isn’t Covid, so we don’t have to worry about that. We’ll see how people are on Saturday and take it from there.”
The good thing is that every member of the squad has shown that they’re ready to step in, consistently, as and when required.
“That’s what they’ve done,” the gaffer said. “They’ve been consistent and they need to keep that up in the 13 games to come.
“We have a mini-league of about 16 or 17 teams going on, over a short period of time, and we’ve just got to make sure we keep doing things properly.
“As we have all season, we’re asking the players to be the best professionals they can be. We want them to be as well prepared as they possibly can be, do all the right things away from the club and when they’re in for training.
“Hopefully they’ll keep performing in the same way they have.”
So, if the worst comes to the worst, could we see some of the second-year youth scholars on the bench?
“No, it's probably the first time I'm going to do it, but no,” he said. “I won't be. I'm going to continue with the group that we've got available and I think for young players to be involved on the bench, they need to consistently show to a level that they deserve to.
“As we sit here at the moment, there isn't anybody who comes into that bracket, so we'll go with what we've got. I don't like doing it normally, but it's a decision that I've made.
“I've discussed it with the other staff today. We're all in agreement, and that's Mark Birch as well. I've discussed it with Birchy and it's a decision that I've made that that's what will happen this weekend, if we don't have 18.”