Lacklusture first teamers get lucky

By Nathan Jackson
March 3 2005

Keith Alexander has revealed it will be hard to change last weeks team for the visit of Wycombe due to the postponement of the reserve game at Halifax. Ben Futcher, Nathan Peat and Chris Cornelly were all due to return from injury and try and force their way back into the first team.

The trio have been injured for a range of times, Cornelly (18 months, knee problems), Nathan Peat (4 months, knee) and Ben Futcher (2 months, broken jaw/cheek) and were hoping to get some match practice under their belt but now they'll have to wait until next week's home reserve game. However, they won't be nearly as disappointed as Keith Alexander who was hoping to use the game to see whether certain first teamers deserved their place over other players after last week's very poor showing at Cheltenham which saw the home side win despite only having 1 shot on target.

"It was very disappointing to have the game postponed, but we can't control the weather," Alexander declared to the Echo, "There were several players who would have had the opportunity to say 'I want a chance against Wycombe but now I'm going to find it difficult to make those changes because a lot of my options have not played a game for more than a month."

Other players who were keen to stake a claim were new signing Lee Beevers and the returning Martin Carruthurs. The players believed to be under pressure are Kevin Sandwith, Matt Bloomer, Francis Green and GTF who have all not performed anywhere near as good as their potential. Carruthurs probably has the biggest chance of getting into the first team after he impressed Keith Alexander with his attitude.

"I wanted Martin to go on loan and get some games under his belt, so he would be fully fit for our run-in " said Alexander. "The fact he wants to come back and fight for his place is just the kind of attitude I want."

Ciaran Toner is also believed to be close to securing a move away from Sincil Bank as several clubs have reportedly made very good offers for him.