Jimmy Quinn has added two players to the squad ahead of Saturday's visit to Gravesend & Northfleet, while Ritchie Hanlon is available again after suspension.

Hanlon has now completed a four match ban and must wait to see if he is involved in tomorrow's game, as must new signings Ben Gill, a young defender/midfielder on loan from Watford, and Ben Sedgemore, the experienced former Lincoln and Canvey midfielder, who has joined on non-contract terms.

Hanlon has had a frustrating season so far through injury and two suspensions, but Quinn revealed that the midfielder is raring to go: "He hasn't wasted any time, he's been working very hard on his fitness while he's been suspended and doing extra work on his fitness levels in case he's called upon."

Quinn also has options up front, but with strikers Liam Marum (left) and Marcus Richardson both in good goalscoring form, Danny Carey-Bertram may have to settle for a place on the bench again, as Quinn confirmed.

"He came on as sub on Tuesday night but I think the two lads up front have done really well and they've built up a good understanding, and it's all about scoring goals.

"That's the pressure that you have as a striker, and I was a striker myself so I know you're not judged on your overall play, you're judged mainly on the number of times you put the ball in the net.

"The two lads in the team at the moment have done that and they deserve to keep their place, and Danny's going to have to show a lot of character and determination to keep training hard and working hard to work his way in. But that's healthy; that's good competition."

Although Liam Marum has agreed a three-month contract and Trevor Robinson extended his non-contract arrangement by a further month, by Thursday evening defender Rob Gier had not decided whether to extend his arrangement by a month. However he is still with the club on a non-contract basis and is eligible to play on Saturday.

"I'll be speaking to Rob again and hopefully he will decide, but it's down to him at the end of the day," commented Quinn.

"I think he was looking for a longer contract, but I always take my time to assess people and I've made him the offer of another month to have a good look at him, as I will with the rest of the squad.

"Hopefully Rob will want to stay. If he doesn't then I'll have to get on the phone, but I don't think there will be a problem, Rob has done OK for us - although in my honest opinion he could be better - but hopefully he'll agree to stay and keep going.

"We've kept quite a settled side since I've been here and he's played his part in that, and I think that's a key to being a successful side; if you make too many changes people aren't sure what their roles are and what position they're playing.

"We've tried as well as we can, barring injuries, to keep a settled side so they all get used to playing with each other and Rob's done very well"

The Opposition

The manager has pinpointed the areas that disappointed him on Tuesday, when United led twice against Altrincham but were twice pegged back to draw 2-2, and the squad has been working on that in preparation for tomorrow's game at Liam Daish's Gravesend & Northfleet.

"We need to work on the tempo and pace of our passing, and our reaction to disappointment, and also the reaction when you score a goal," said Quinn. "I thought the other night when we scored the goal that we looked as though we thought we'd won the game.

"You could see on the video that our passing was a bit sloppy and it wasn't the right pace, and we'd worked on that in training so I was disappointed in that and we've had to get about them in training again to make sure they get the message.

"I want them to play at the right pace and also react when you concede a goal. It's very important. The psychology of football is 90% of it and you can't let your head drop when you concede a goal and feel sorry for yourself, you've got to react in the right way and be more positive.

"And when you score a goal you've got to drive home your advantage and most of the time you've got to work even harder, instead of taking your foot off the gas. If we take the lead, we have to kick them when they're down and keep them down there. But we're working on the training ground and they'll learn."

Before their defeat at Weymouth on Wednesday evening, Gravesend were unbeaten in eight games and Quinn knows his side must improve on aspects of Tuesday's performance.

"We've done some defensive work this week because of Tuesday's game," he confirmed. "Altrincham's second goal was like the Red Sea parting and we didn't defend well at all.

"We should have defended narrow and forced them wide, one or two people were diving in instead of staying on their feet and making sure they were goalside, so we've been working on that and making sure we stay compact and defend as a team.

"They're a decent team. They have a lot of young players in the team these days and they really do work hard to close the ball down, and obviously they've got that extra little bit of class up front in the lad McDonald. He's a very good player and he's very confident at the moment because he's scoring goals.

"But we've got Michael Morrison in there against him who's a good young player as well so it will be a test for him. There's a job for Michael to do on Saturday and I'm pretty confident that Michael will come out on top because from what I've seen he's a very, very good player."

More Information

Read the news from the Gravesend camp and details about their squad and season to date in Chris Vessey's "The Other Side" preview, you can find directions and ticket details here, and if you fancy a bet on our match or any other event this weekend we have all the odds at AbbeyBet, where your betting makes money for the U's.

If you can't be at the match, listen to every kick of the game courtesy of Radio Cambridgeshire and see the live stats from our game and goal flashes from around the country via the our fantastic MatchLive Console on U's World.

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