Jacques MaghomaJACQUES Maghoma will today undergo a fitness test on his injured knee to see if he is fit to return at Dagenham & Redbridge tomorrow.
The 25-year-old Burton Albion star – nominated for February’s League Two player of the month – missed Tuesday night’s 2-1 victory at Aldershot Town and is a doubt as the Brewers look to stay in second spot.
“Jacques is down to train today and we’ll have to see how he is,” said Albion boss Gary Rowett, who has been nominated for February’s manager of the month award.
Striker Billy Kee, who also missed the win at Aldershot, trained yesterday and is fully fit ahead of the trip to Victoria Road, kick-off 3pm.
Calvin Zola, too, is fit after being hit by fatigue on Tuesday and coming off just short of the hour.
“Calv’s all right,” said Rowett last night. “It was tiredness and fatigue rather than an injury.
“He’d played 55 to 60 minutes and I think the journey down and everything else contributed.”
Stuart Tomlinson and Anthony O’Connor both sat out training yesterday with a sickness bug, but both are expected to be recovered come Saturday.
Albion go looking for a sixth away win of the season in East London tomorrow – and Rowett says going second in the table has made his fast-improving travelling Brewers want to win the game even more.
“With winning at Aldershot and going second, it feels like you’ve got to win it to stay in there,” he said. “With our recent away form in the last few games – Bristol Rovers aside – it gives us a little bit of room if we have a bad result in the last seven or eight.
“If we lose one it’s not going to affect us too much.
“Winning at Aldershot doesn’t change this game at all – it’s no different.
“We’ll try to be hard to beat and hard to play against.
“It really is quite as simple as that.
“It’ll be exactly the same approach as at Aldershot – it’s difficult to say ‘we don’t have to beat them’.
“That can lower standards.”
Rowett wants his Albion braves to put in another sterling effort to extend the lead over clubs behind them in the table and ease the pressure should a dodgy game befall them.
“If you look at our form over the last 15 to 20 games,” he said. “What’s important for us is if we can put a few more games together on top of the run we’ve already got, we can afford a poor game like Bristol Rovers.
“That’s the aim.
“If we can keep winning games, the gap will get bigger.”
FORMER Gresley striker Brian Woodall will not feature for Dagenham against the Brewers tomorrow.
The 25-year-old has joined Conference North outfit Bishop’s Stortford on a months’ loan.
ROWETT and Maghoma will find out at 9am today if they have won their respective awards.
