Players set to return after much-needed break

Macclesfield’s winding up order and expulsion from the National League this season means the Magpies have a much-needed break this weekend ahead of their next league fixture on Boxing Day, and Ryan Peters is hopeful the Magpies will have a much larger squad to choose from when that game rolls around.

United are due to play at Weymouth in the FA Trophy next Saturday (December 19) but they’ll hope to coax a few more players off the treatment table and back onto the pitch for the visit of Wealdstone to York Road on December 26. For the past few weeks, they’ve been without a string of first team players, leaving Devonshire to say he doesn’t yet know what his strongest first XI is. Remy Clerima was back in the squad for the games against Eastleigh and Torquay this week and Peters is hopeful they’ll have most of their injured players back for the hectic Christmas and New Year period.

“We would have played Macclesfield on Saturday, but that game obviously isn’t going to happen,” said Peters. “So, we’ve got Saturday free. And then after that it’s the Trophy weekend so there’s a week or two where we might get a few boys back from injury. However, we’ve got a few more injuries in the pipeline. As some come back others go out. But that’s why we’ve got a squad with a bit more depth to it so that when a player gets injured there’s an able body ready to go in and take his place.

“The Trophy game might come a little early for a few of the injured players, and we wouldn’t risk them in that match when we would like to get through and go on a bit of a run through a few rounds. The last thing we would want to do is jeopardise them. We’d like to think that after a week or two of training they’d be ready for the game that follows the Trophy tie.”