The Walking Wounded

Another by-product of last night's battling victory was the mounting tariff of injuries we had to endure. Marvin Morgan looked like he'd injured himself in the first minute, and continued to hobble on for the rest of his tenure, while Billy Murphy was also heavily iced up after he'd come off. On top of that, Nick McCootie looked spent long before the end of normal time, and appeared to tweak his hamstring just after we'd made our third substitution, bravely battling on to the final whistle.

Add to this the increasing absence of Watkins and Shaquille's up-coming suspension, and you'll see that our attacking options are diminishing by the minute. A few more players looked like they were carrying knocks by the end of the game, too, so it will be interesting to see who Owers has available to choose from at Hemel on Saturday. Will he be dipping into the loan market again, or will he be forced to bring the up-to-now ineffectual Fleetwood into the fray?

It's going to be an interesting few days.

Its amazing what a Cup win can do for players ailments, but yes time to test the squad depth. Marshall seemed to get a decent run out last night, he should be chomping at the bit. think Hutch deserves a start.

I'm gonna dig up the Hemel pitch in an attempt to get the match postponed

Borrow mine, I should be finished at Lords by Friday....

If none of them are fit for Saturday I wouldn't mind seeing a front three trio of Bowman and Hutchinson given license to attack freely on the wings and Fleetwood in the box. Hemmings, Marshall, Diallo should also be fresh enough to complete the midfield.

I agree with palms, unlike previous seasons we have a stronger squad so can still put out a good 11 on saturday

If Fleetwood was ever going to make a contribution it surely had to be last night. Neither McCootie or Morgan were probably fit enough to start and the former was a walking passenger by the time the latter was removed. Hutchinson did ok, but surely a bloke with Fleetwood's experience would have been ideal with us down to ten men.

They had Fleetwood stripped down and ready to come on at the start of the first period of extras, but the bench appeared to reassess this move when Oxford brought on two subs before him. Some minutes later Josh came on.

I'm not sure what this tells us, but it does seem worthy of note.

Were you sat in the dugout?

Given the atrocious quality of the floodlights last night, especially along the side by the dugouts, I'm amazed Hacksaw could see anything happening. Perhaps Mrs Hacksaw is Polystyrene in disguise...Xray Specs!!

Nah, I was stood right next to them, and the dugout was clear perspex. And anyway, Fleetwood was stripped down, waiting to go on, with Jimmer trying to alert the ref before they had their change of heart, so it wasn't hard to notice from where we were stood.