Tony Mowbray has admitted that the squad has become even more depleted with injuries. But Niall Huggins will travel with the squad tonight to Birmingham, as will 15-year-old sensation Chris Rigg.
HUGGINS UPDATE
“The one positive I could tell you about is that Niall Huggins is back on the grass. I think he’s been out for over a year. Played a couple of games for the Under 21s then played at St James’ Park the other week and got 90 minutes. I think it was his second 90 minutes but he’s back now training with the first team.”
SIMMS
“I think it's nice to see Ellis back with his boots on and with three or four appearances now. I think he's still way short of the match fitness required to make a big impact on the team other than from the substitutes bench. I thought we saw on Saturday, without being too critical, it's hard to get to the intensity levels at the start of a football match instead of coming on after 60 minutes after it’s died down a little bit.”
PLAYERS LEAVING?
“Everybody’s for sale aren’t they? And I was a big advocate at my previous club of selling assets and reinvesting back into the team to make the team better. No team stays together for more than six, seven years these days you know? You sold one hero who’s scored loads of goals and did really well? Doesn't matter because there's another one around the corner. And that's what football is.”
RETURNING LADS
“For me, I'm looking forward to Ross Stewart on the training ground. I’m looking forward to Aji on the training ground. I'm looking forward to Ballard hopefully on the training ground you know, Gooch back on the training ground.”
DECISIONS TO BE MADE
“There's maybe seven or eight footballers that I think that just about all of them could start in our team and Luke O’Nien you thought in this instance because of the suspension, It's not an ideal situation for us. I’m trying to understand the difference between development and winning. And it’s a difficult task particularly with the depletion of the squad and yet I enjoy the challenge.”
