Town striker James Scowcroft is the Blues' latest worry for Saturday's clash with Arsenal. The Stanton-based player bruised his foot in training and joins Fabian Wilnis as aserious concern for tomorrow. Wilnis jarred his knee during the 2-0 defeat at Millwall on Tuesday and along with Scowcroft missed training yesterday. If Scowcroft misses out it is likely that the Johnson/Stewart partnership will be given another try, while Gary Croft looks likely to deputise for the injured Wilnis.
On the plus side Titus Bramble was back in training yesterday after missing at out the Den with a hip injury and Mark Venus has had a hamstring problem clear up. More good news is that Richard Naylor is back in the squad after his summer operations. Naylor travelled to Leeds last week, but was not in contention even for a place on the bench, however he now has two reserve games under his belt and may be amongst the subs tomorrow. Amir Karic is also likely to find himself on the bench as George Burley says he hasn't had enough first team football recently to warrant a start.
Next Wednesday's FA Premier Reserve League match against Charlton has been called off as the work on the floodlights (see NewsNet earlier this week on the South Stand development) will be in progress. Instead the two teams will play a behind closed doors friendly at Bent Lane. Amir Karic is likely to take some part in the game to build up his experience of the English game.
Dutch midfielder Martijn Reuser is reported to be frustrated at his lack of first team opportunities so far. The £1 million summer signing was withdrawn at half-time on Tuesday after a quiet display at the Den. The for Ajax man said: "I'm not happy about the situation. I feel a bit pressurised and that's no good. I was not playing well at Millwall, but the whole team were having a disappointing time as a whole. My confidence is a bit low at the moment and needs to be boosted."