Wayne Gray looks set to start for Cambridge United when they tackle Newport County at the Abbey Stadium tomorrow.
Gray came off the bench to score the opening goal against Kettering in the 3-0 midweek win over the Poppies, and manager Martin Ling is considering handing him a starting berth, with Daryl Clare the man likely to miss out.
Reflecting on Tuesday's game, Ling said: "It wasn't a 3-0 game, and you'd have to say we weren't comfortable in the match, we just had a hot ten minutes near the end. But on the other hand it's another home win, and we've now scored ten goals in three games, conceding none.
"If we'd scored our goals at 20 minute intervals everyone would have been talking afterwards about what a good performance it was. It doesn't always work like that, teams come here and make it difficult for us to break them down, and you have to stick at it and wait for your chance. Sometimes it takes time or a substitution to change things, and it's a pleasing result in that sense because we stuck at it."
On Gray (pictured above), the former Leyton Orient boss commented: "Wayne Gray has to be pushing for a start having come on and scored. He's made an impact in both recent games, so he's got a big case to be includied. It might happen this Saturday."
With Adam Miller and Conal Platt still sidelined, along with youngster Liam Hughes, Ling's other injury concern is James Jennings, who has a tight hamstring. Jennings was left out of the starting line up on Tuesday night, and Ling explained that he felt the change gave his team better balance.
"The game on Tuesday always going to be physical, and I didn't think we needed to change the back four after they played well on Saturday," he said" Dave Partridge was probably our best player on Saturday, and James missed out on Tuesday because Rory is more comfortable in midfield than James is on the left wing, it gave the side a better balance and James will live with that. He's one of six defenders who have played for us this season and helped us achieve a good defensive record, and he takes credit for that with the rest of the team. But I made the decision on Tuesday night, and it was proven correct by the clean sheet we kept."
Looking at the season so far, Ling said: "We've got 11 points from five home games, but we'll be judged on our overall record and at the moment the away form isn't what we'd like it to be. I'm confident that will correct itself though. To be a successful side you need a good home record and a strong defence, which we have. Now all we need to do is add a few points away from home, and I'm sure that will come. Good players at home don't become bad players in away games.
"Football matches are decided on small margins, be they home or away. On Tuesday night Kettering had the first chance with a free header at the back post, but then in the second half we make the change, Paul Carden has a mis-hit shot and Wayne Gray scores. We're a decent side, better than last year, and I'll keep saying that until I'm blue in the face because I know it's true. We're not even a quarter of the way through the season, it's an open league, but it's panning out on money spent so far."
He continued: "Apart from Tamworth, the teams with money are congregating at the top and we need to get in amongst that group and we're confident we can. Crawley have got big money. When you look at them spending £275,000 on Brodie, that's nearly half my budget on one player without his wages. I'm not bleating about it, I'm just gobsmacked they've got quite so much. We expected it from Luton, but them, Crawley, and Fleetwood can blow everyone else out of the water when it comes to paying for players."
Tomorrow's visitors Newport have enjoyed a good start to the season, and Ling said: "They've looked comfortable since coming up. They're a bigger club than people give them credit for, and went down into the mire but have built up slowly since.
"They've got a good fanbase, decent money, and will be a tough nut to crack. They've had good results recently, but so have we. They're similar to us in that there have been no big scorelines, they've edged a few and lost a few. I expect them to be a top half team, and I know we'll be a top half team, so we're competing against one of the better sides in the league and it will be interesting to see how we do.
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