Assistant manager Stuart Taylor is hopeful Cole Skuse, Jon Nolan and Janoi Donacien will be OK to make the trip to Exeter City for Saturday’s Leasing.com Trophy third round tie against the League Two Grecians.

Skuse has missed the last two matches with wry neck, along with Nolan, who has a heel problem. Donacien suffered a dead leg during the 5-3 defeat at Lincoln and was forced off just before half-time.

“Cole Skuse has had a neck strain which has caused a lot of problems for him,” Taylor said after the New Year’s Day game at Wycombe.

“In the last week it’s eased off a little bit, but it’s still a sore one for him. He’s not really got a lot of movement in it and we thought it would have healed up a lot quicker than it has, but unfortunately not.

“We’ll assess Cole over the next two days and if he’s fine to travel then he’ll definitely travel, he’s a massive part of what’s going on at the club.

“Jon Nolan has been feeling his heel, he played in the game against Gillingham and maybe played through the pain barrier when maybe he should have sat it out.

“But like everyone in the dressing room, they want to go and do it for the right reasons, are in it for the cause and they don’t want to be pulling out.

“They know there’s a lot of competition for places now because everybody’s been playing games, everybody’s fit, so the lads don’t want to be pulling out they want to be playing understandably.

“Hopefully Jon Nolan will be back as well, he’s instrumental to what we do, how we go and play, how he gets on the ball and is creative and the dimension he gives to the team. We need everybody fit and hopefully those two will be available come the end of the week.”

Regarding Donacien, he added: “He’s struggled massively with a dead leg and everybody could see he was trying to battle through but we had to take him off.

“He’s struggled the last couple of days, he was nowhere near ready for today. We’re just hoping that he’s going to be a quicker healer in the next couple of days and hopefully he’ll turn that corner and he’ll be fine, hence the reason we had to change the formation today and also change one or two personnel.”

Winger Danny Rowe underwent surgery to clean up cartilage in his knee a fortnight ago and Taylor says the 27-year-old is making good progress.

“Danny’s come out of his operation, it’s been a success and he’s recovering and is on the mend,” he said.

“He’s on a rehab programme and hopefully he’ll get stronger every single day. But he should be fine.”
"Asked whether Freddie Sears would be ready to start against the Grecians, Taylor said: “That would be telling! Teddy Bishop as well, he’s obviously played tonight, which is great for the club, great for the players in the dressing room, it’s great for the staff and great for the supporters that they see Bish back on the pitch again.

“Having him on the training field for the last couple of weeks has been fantastic, he’s such a talent on the ball.

“Freddie’s the same as well, we all know what Freddie can do from last season. The areas he picks the ball up, the way he goes is aggressive, he runs with the ball and is creative and he’s got goals in him. We do need him back, we need everybody back.

“It’s a game that Freddie comes into contention for, along with everybody else. What we’ll do is take stock from the Wycombe game, make sure everybody’s OK, that there aren’t any injuries we need to be concerned about and we’ll bring the lads first thing in the morning, we’ll train again and then we’ll get ready for the game again at the weekend.

Taylor says Bishop, who made his first appearance of the campaign as an 88th minute sub at Adams Park having recovered from the knee injury he suffered in pre-season, can add running with the ball to the Blues’ midfield.

“Yes, and that’s what we looked at today,” he added. “I thought Judgey did it very well today, I thought he was very impressive in his performance, he got a couple of chances where he’s hit the target and the keeper’s made great saves.

“But Bish gives us that option as well, so does Jon Nolan. There are players in every position that are fighting for their place.”

Also available is forward Jordan Roberts, Town’s Leasing.com Trophy top scorer with three goals.

“He’s back from injury now and he’s been back training for the last couple of weeks,” Taylor continued. “Jordan’s like everybody else, there’s competition for places.

“We’ve got Norwood, Jackson, Keane and even Aaron Drinan’s coming back in, he’s come back from his loan spell [with GAIS in Sweden] and January now opens up for him.

“You’ve got four strikers there and Jordan’s one of them. He needs to keep fighting away to go and get an opportunity to play.”

Photo: TWTD

afcfee added 12:41 - Jan 3 New deal to go with the manager? They're both so good of the playing field, like Chambers, doesn't matter about how they perform on the pitch.
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NthQldITFC added 12:55 - Jan 3 I had no idea wry neck was a medical condition. I thought you were saying he'd been off birdwatching.
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ITFCsince73 added 13:01 - Jan 3 The bookmakers have the mighty Exeter City as favourites for this match...there must be some mistake. Do they not realise, Exeter are playing the former european great club side....former FA cup winner and champions of England.
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BlueInBerks added 13:10 - Jan 3 ITFC, omg that's so sad
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bobbyramsey added 13:15 - Jan 3 Oh good more players for Lambert to "tinker" with......
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ArnieM added 13:17 - Jan 3 Of course we have recent history of playing well at Exeter don't we....not ! As for Skuse wry neck ...A very painful condition. I suspect he's got it from looking upwards as the ball is hoofed out of defence over the midfield....bit like Arnie Muhren did on his debut game vs Liverpool all those years ago. How times change!
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ITFCsince73 added 13:30 - Jan 3 Or maybe they fear Chambo and Skuse will start to take part in this competition....
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therein61 added 16:37 - Jan 3 2 out of 3 would be good Mr Taylor(that's a wry comment by the way!!)
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therein61 added 17:51 - Jan 3 "nthqlditfc" he might as well go birdwatching as all he does is go ball watching for 90 minutes!!( another wry comment)
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