Harrogate Town v Carlisle United: Sulphurites hopeful that duo could return

Harrogate Town manager Simon Weaver has a seriously long injury-list to contend with. Pictures: Matt Kirkham

Will Smith’s season-ending knee injury at Northampton on Easter Monday took the Sulphurites’ injury-list to 10 senior players, leaving manager Simon Weaver seriously short of options.

But, he says that both Alex Pattison and Lloyd Kerry are in with a chance of featuring against the resurgent Cumbrians.

“We are hoping that Patto and Lloyd might be okay,” he said.

Alex Pattison started for Harrogate Town in Good Friday's 4-1 home loss to Swindon, but had to be replaced at half-time due to a hip complaint.

“We will have to wait until Friday until we have a better idea, but they’ll probably both do late fitness tests and we will see.

“Obviously we don’t want to rush them back if they’re not quite ready. We are safe now, so it’s not like we need to win this game to stay up, so that changes the way we look at this situation a little bit.

“We’re desperate for a result, we want to win on Saturday, of course we do, and we want those two on the pitch, but there isn’t that serious need to risk either one of them if we’re not 100 per cent sure.”

Pattison had to come off at half-time as Town lost out 4-1 to Swindon on Good Friday, while Kerry picked up a niggle in training the day before the match.

Later in the same game, Ryan Fallowfield damaged his groin in similar fashion to the way team-mate Rory McArdle did back in September, suffering an avulsion fracture to two of his groin tendons. He has since undergone surgery.

And with Smith now set for an extended spell out with anterior cruciate ligament damage, he joins Fallowfield, Mark Oxley, Lewis Page, Josh Falkingham, Calum Kavanagh, Brahima Diarra and Lewis Richards on the long-term casualty list.

Town head into Saturday's fixture 20th in the League Two standings off the back of four consecutive losses and having taken just four points from the last 30 on offer.

Seventeenth-placed Carlisle ended a run of four games without a victory by beating Mansfield 1-0 last time out, but prior to that they had won six out of seven to pull clear of the relegation zone following the return of former boss Paul Simpson to the managerial hot-seat.

Kick-off at the EnviroVent Stadium is at 3pm.