Town boss Paul Cook was keeping his cards close to his chest regarding whether Bersant Celina would come back into his team following his spell away with Kosovo and whether injured duo Hayden Coulson or Christian Walton will be available for tomorrow’s trip to Cambridge United.
Celina missed last week’s 2-1 home victory over Shrewsbury as he was away with his national team with Conor Chaplin coming into the number 10 role and scoring Town’s first goal having also netted in the 2-0 Papa John’s Trophy victory at Gillingham a few days earlier.
Quizzed on that selection dilemma, Cook said: "We’ll just keep our cards close to our chest. We’ve got an extremely strong squad, I think competition for places is there for everyone to see.
"Personally, as a manager, I’ve always felt competition should always drive performance up. I think that’s a real key ingredient to what good clubs have, that you fear for your place.
"If Bersant wasn’t to start tomorrow, that’s obviously tough after you’ve been away playing international football, of course. But obviously Conor’s come in and taken that chance.
"I think one of the big things with the three games coming up this week, three very tough fixtures starting off at Cambridge, I think we’ve going to have to utilise the squad in certain areas to get the best level of performance we can and the most points we can accumulate.”
Fans don’t always agree with managers rotating their squads, preferring bosses to stick with a winning XI even when games are coming thick and fast and Cook has sympathy with that view.
"I’d probably be in the fans’ way of thinking, if I’m being brutally truthful,” he said. "But if you look at the performance at Accrington after we’d won against Doncaster, then that probably goes against the grain.
"As a manager, you’re probably damned if you do and damned if you don’t, aren’t you, because the result becomes paramount.
"I think when you look at the flair players at the club, especially at the top end of the pitch, we do have a lot of good players.
"Our goals-for column is very, very healthy and good, so a change or two, a tweak or two I don’t think alters how we play and I think if the lads come into the team that Chaplin has, for example, then the reality is that the performance will stay the same. So watch this space.”
Last week Cook says he expected Hayden Coulson, who has been out since the Lincoln game with a thigh problem, and keeper Christian Walton, who has had an adductor issue, to be back in the reckoning this week.
Asked whether Coulson would indeed be available for tomorrow’s match, Cook was giving little away.
"The reality is that I’m not going to speak about the injuries and the squads,” he said. "These press conferences are what they are, we want to give Cambridge the utmost respect, they’ve done great after a promotion last year.
"They’ve come into a new division, which is a really tough one. I’m sure those lads will be delighted with how they’ve started, it’s a big game for them tomorrow and we won’t be debating our squad or people who are in or out.”