Martin Ling wants to build on last Saturday's first home win with further points from back-to-back home games tomorrow and on Tuesday.
Saturday's visitors are Forest Green Rovers who have had a disappointing start to the season and are only kept off the bottom of the table by Chester City's massive points deduction. Currently 23rd after seven games, their only point comes from Monday's admirable away draw at leaders Oxford United.
United are currently eighth in the table with eleven points from seven outings and looking to follow up the win at home to Gateshead after losing the first two home fixtures.
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Team News
Ling has had the luxury of a full squad in training for the last two days after striker Lee Phillips (knee) and winger Jordan Patrick (groin) were cleared to resume full training, but he is likely to name an unchanged side for the fourth successive game.
He feels it is too early to thrust Phillips back into action after six weeks on the sidelines recovering from the knee ligament injury he suffered against West Ham in pre-season, but may include the striker on the bench with the aim of giving him some match minutes if possible.
"He's had two clear days' training so that's pleasing, but I don't want to push him back to soon and have him break down so my decision will be based entirely on his fitness," confirmed Ling.
"With no reserve team here it's about trying to get him some pitch time. He's definitely not ready for a start after just two days' training because there's no way he could last even 60 minutes, so it would be a substitute spot at best."
With the whole squad in training Ling admits his options in team selection are giving him the best type of headache, but he hinted at naming an unchanged side tomorrow: "With the lack of senior players we do need a bit of luck with injuries and suspensions, and at the moment we're having that and the players are playing well enough to hold onto their shirts.
"It's about other people ousting them out, or someone in the team not having such a good time and me looking elsewhere within the squad to change it.
"We had 21 players training yesterday, which is a first. So the treatment room is empty and Greg (Reid, physio) actually came out to training and collected some balls for me!"
The Other Side
Forest Green Rovers were empty-handed from their first six games until they went to Oxford on Monday and earned a point that even Oxford manager Chris Wilder conceded was well-deserved.
"They've had a bad start, but they held Oxford to a draw last week so they'll be no pushovers," warned Ling. "I spoke to (Oxford manager) Chris Wilder and he said they were the better side against them on Monday, so they've had a start but they've gone and held the top team to a draw in a game they should have won.
"They've got one point in seven games and they're in a dog fight at the moment but that could change quickly over the next seven games in September. They've got to start moving forward quickly but we don't want that to start against us on Saturday."
Rovers will be forced into one change because Jon Challinor's loan to FGR ended today and the transfer-listed midfielder returns to Cambridge, but Ling believes the U's must concentrate on themselves first.
"I've said before about this league, any team can beat any other team on their day, and although they didn't beat Oxford they were the better side against them so we will respect that.
"It's about our performance on the pitch; we have to impose our game on them. We've talked about how we can hurt them and hopefully our game plan is better than the one Oxford used against them. No games are home bankers."
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