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NATHAN JONES ON EMIRATES FA CUP FIRST ROUND DRAW AND DAN POTTS

22 October 2018

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Club News

NATHAN JONES ON EMIRATES FA CUP FIRST ROUND DRAW AND DAN POTTS

22 October 2018

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Town boss Nathan Jones has said he is looking forward to this evening's Emirates FA Cup first round draw, as well as revealing the extent of the injury Dan Potts picked up on Saturday.

Potts was stretchered off just before half-time in the 2-0 win over Walsall, but Jones explained that the injury is nowhere near as bad as feared.

He said: "It's just a slight groin strain really. He's walking around not a problem. It might be a week or so, or slightly longer but we'll see, we can't rush those things – a slight groin strain.

"He had a similar type of thing but nowhere near as bad in the last home game and we brought him off immediately and he recovered for Barnsley, but this one is slightly worse, so we've just got to be careful with it.

"I think the alarm bells ring when a stretcher is called as you think something really, really bad and so on, but we've had a few of them – we had Scott Cuthbert carried off on a stretcher that ended up playing on the Tuesday. So it's precautionary and nowadays, with health and safety gone bonkers, most of the time rightly so, it's just processes we have to stick to."

With the 24-year-old out for tomorrow evening's game against Accrington, Jones has several options to play at left back, including skipper Alan Sheehan and James Justin.

"There is a choice between those and we've got good cover in that area," he continued.

"Sheez is a big player for us in what we do and how we play and so on. It's a decision for me, it's what we do, he's going to come up against a good player on that side, so whatever we do, they've got to be defensively strong and we'll pick a team accordingly."

Danny Hylton made his first start since going off injured against Shrewsbury Town at the end of August, with the striker playing a majority of the game against the Saddlers before being subbed off.

Jones said: "It was a good 80 minutes for him. We wanted to bring him off slightly earlier, it's difficult, if we had just got a third a little bit earlier we'd have brought him off a lot earlier. I didn't expect him to last as long, but he did, so it was a good run out for him.

"We've got to be careful with him as we can't just flog him now, push him too hard and let him break down. He's in real good form, he's trained for a number of weeks with us, we brought him back at the right time, he had 15 minutes at Barnsley and now he's had the 80 minutes so he's ready now."

Luke Berry is edging over closer to returning to the first team picture after suffering a setback in his recovery, but the gaffer is expecting him back very soon.

"Again, we're probably ultra-careful with him in terms of the injuries he's had. He's got a little bit of soreness from training hard, so we just take him back a day and then to kick him on.

"He's very, very close, but it's one of those things, we want him to be ready when he does come back in, because he's been out for a little while."

Tonight's first round draw of the Emirates FA Cup is taking place at Hitchin Town, where Alan Sheehan will be representing the Hatters.

Jones is looking forward to it and is hoping for a tie with a bit of romance about it.

He explained: "It's really interesting the FA Cup draw. I think the one that sort of has the least amount of interest is the second round really.

"When the romance goes out a bit and the big ones are still in. you're hoping you don't draw someone from your own league because it's a bit like another league game. but tonight there is a real varied class of team.

"It's a really interesting one. We'd like a home draw, then we will see who we get from there. It's always better when you get a home draw in front of your crowd. We'd like a little bit of romance in there as well with certain ones, but you never know."


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