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Wanderers aim to use their Bristol Street Motors Trophy game against Port Vale to their advantage on Tuesday night.
Ian Evatt plans to make several changes from the side that beat Harrogate Town 5-1 in the FA Cup, giving those who did not feature “significant” playing time, with one eye on the upcoming league trip to Portsmouth.
The likes of Dion Charles, Josh Sheehan, Victor Adeboyejo and Paris Maghoma played as second-half subs at the weekend but George Thomason, Jash Dacres-Cogley, Eoin Toal and Joel Coleman all sat the game out.
“There will be a few changes from Saturday,” the manager explained. “The issue we have is that the Portsmouth league game has been moved to the Monday night and the last league fixture was the Tuesday at Oxford, it becomes almost a two-week break, and that is too much to give everyone a rest.
“What we decided to do was manage the minutes between both games. It is likely that some of the players who didn’t play on Saturday will play against Port Vale because they need that game time to get themselves fully ready for the Portsmouth match.
“We can’t have players not playing for two weeks, they need to stay in that rhythm. So, especially those who didn’t play against Harrogate, they will get significant minutes.”
Cameron Jerome will not be included in the squad after picking up a neck injury last week. The experienced striker is not expected to be out of commission for long, however, and should be in contention for a place in the squad at Fratton Park next week.
Evatt gave his reaction to Wanderers being draw away at Luton Town in the FA Cup third round – a match which will reunite him with ex-Blackpool team-mate Rob Edwards.
Fans gave a lukewarm reaction to the draw – with Luton’s famously compact Kenilworth Road offering a relatively low allocation to away supporters – but at least one person at the Toughsheet Stadium was pleased.
“The groundsman is definitely happy, no home draw,” Evatt added. “We first pretty much first out of the hat but I almost missed it because I got told the wrong time it was on.
“But it is a game against a Premier League team and a manager I know very well.
“We’re looking forward to testing ourselves against a team that is doing pretty well at the minute.
“The draw is the draw, but for us it is about getting ready for the Trophy game against Port Vale and then the big one against Portsmouth to come.”
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