Manager Paul Hurst have provided an update ahead of the Iron’s trip to take on Oldham Athletic on New Year’s Day (3pm kick-off).
Kevin van Veen was withdrawn at half-time of Sunday’s away clash at Crewe Alexandra through illness, and the manager explained it’s likely the Dutchman will miss the game at Boundary Park on Wednesday.
He told iFollow Iron: “Kev’s ill and hasn’t been in training. We’d expect him to be a no for the Oldham game if he hasn’t trained, and he’s probably drained from what he did play at Crewe. I’m pretty sure we’ll be missing Kev, though we might have one or two back, but there are one or two conversations needed to see where they are.
“We’ll keep Oldham guessing (regarding who they are) and I do genuinely need to speak to Michael (McBride, head of medical services) and the players themselves to see how they are and if they feel they can give everything to the team ahead of a game we want to get back to winning ways in.
“I have an idea of the team I’d like to go with, but some of that will literally be decided on the day, speaking to the players on the morning when we’re all together.
“James Perch (who the manager said there could be a doubt over following the Crewe game) looks like he’s going to be okay, and certainly hasn’t made anyone aware of anything in particular. He was out training with the other players on Tuesday so I think with that one we’ll be alright.”
Speaking about what to expect from Oldham, he continued: “It’s a difficult one. Reading their press, they have lads carrying knocks and injuries. Naturally with so many games in a short space of time, there may be changes anyway but I think they still try to play quite expansive football and a certain system that’s stayed the same recently. They had a lot of shots on goal the other day despite losing against Salford (4-1), but I know the feeling is there that the scoreline wasn’t a true reflection of the game entirely. Like us, they’ll be wanting to get back to winning ways.”
He added: “For us, it’s another away game. We came up against a good team the other day and Crewe clearly were very good in possession of the football, and at times we were too. They scored the goals that mattered and when we did get back in the game, we kicked ourselves again (conceding two minutes after Lee Novak pulled one back to make it 2-1) and weren’t in a position to get that equaliser we’d have liked, although it would have been perhaps undeserved, but sometimes football can be like that.
“On Wednesday, we’ll be looking to not make mistakes, not make the task harder and get back to playing how we like to.”
The January transfer window opens on Wednesday and Hurst expects a quiet start for the Iron, adding: “To be honest, it’ll be after the weekend until we really are in a position to do anything realistically. It’ll be an interesting January, with a lot of situations far from concluded with players who may be away from the club now, loan players, etc. It could be a very active January or it could be a very quiet one. We have to stay open-minded to that. As always, we have to explore the options that could be available. But, as we speak now, there’s certainly far from anything definite.”
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