We spoke to manager Mark Hughes ahead of Saturday’s trip to Harrogate, firstly asking him for an injury update.
“Cammy [Harper] was out there training today, so he's settled down, but we're still mindful that he's got a little bit of an issue, so we'll have to check. There's no reaction, but we'll see by tomorrow.
“Georgie is getting closer. Dylan, not so much. Georgie is taking more of a part in training these days, so that's encouraging for him.
“We'll see how he goes in the next couple of weeks. He's not going to be able to get up to 90 minutes. I think we accept that, and so does he, but he can play a part. He's a big, powerful guy, so he can cause a bit of chaos if he did come on. So, yeah, we're probably not quite there yet, but he will become an option, I'm sure.”
Josh Vela and Jordan Jones have been involved in recent squads, we asked Mark how important their experience has been. He said: “I just think, where we are in terms of the situation we find ourselves in, I think those experienced boys will help to enable us to have that mindset and that clarity of thought, when sometimes you need to dig in and just ride the storm out. They've been there, seen it, done it, and that experience plays a part then. It was important just to get them up to speed, which I'm happy that we've been able to do that.
“There's a number of guys that haven't had a lot of football, haven't had a lot of game time, haven't had a lot of training, in fairness. So, we've just had to be patient and just feed them in as they went. Now the group looks a lot stronger in terms of the 90 minutes that everyone can cope safely with.
“I'm using the bench, obviously, because I need to. We know certain players will find it more difficult towards the end of the game. I'm always saying to them, just give us what you've got.
“If you do that for us, then we'll carry them off and clap them off and get somebody else on. So, don't think that you have to try and manage your energy levels to get to the end of the 90 minutes. Just give us what you've got.”
Ahead of Saturday’s game at Harrogate, Mark said: “We go into it with higher confidence, certainly.
“I think that was one of the things I hoped to address when I came in, trying to get some more confidence into the group, into our play. I think we've done that, we've had a decent run of four games. That's a good run, teams at the bottom don't go on those type of runs.
“So, we're gaining confidence from that. I think we're gaining confidence from just being together as a group and understanding. When I first came in, they didn't quite know what I was going to be like, or what my demand of them was.
“Now they've got a pretty fair idea, so I think they're more comfortable with that. They know the messaging is constant and consistent and they can work with that.”
And on what to expect from the North-Yorkshire team, he said: “It won't be easy, they score a lot of goals at set plays.
“We've got to be really good in that regard. We got caught out on the second phase set play on Tuesday, which was a little bit disappointing. So we've just got to make sure we do the jobs that we are required to do and do them well and make sure that we don't get caught out on those periods of the game and those set play pieces within the game that can catch you out at this level.
“I think they're pretty direct. We realise that a lot of teams, in fact almost every team we've faced so far, has gone pretty much direct to guys at the top and then got people and numbers around the ball. We've faced that almost every game we've played up to this point, so we've dealt in recent weeks better with that.
“First and foremost, you always have to match up to what they're trying to do against you physically, so we've done pretty well in that regard in the last few weeks.”
On United’s recent record against Harrogate, he said: “That can be a football thing. Sometimes there's a team that just seems to want to have an Indian sign over you and you just can't get over it.
“Those things are there to be changed, so we'll endeavour to do that. As I've been saying for a number of weeks, it's more about what we can do and how we can affect them with the results that we're able to achieve.
“That'll be our first thought, that we can go there with a real intention to win the game. We need wins. We’ve seen we can do that away from home, we'll try and do it again. It won't be easy. Their record's very good in recent weeks. So it'll be a test for us.”
United go to Harrogate backed by another sold-out away end, Mark commented: “We had a great time last time out away from home, so if we can get the same, that'd be great.”
