THREE of North End's key players could be out ahead of Saturday's tough trip to Millwall - just the sort of Worthington Cup injury hangover Craig Brown has set out to avoid.
Goal hero Ricardo Fuller and the midfielder who set up his opener, Paul McKenna, were both today due to undergo tests on knee injuries to establish if they will be fit for the trip to the New Den.
But according to manager Craig Brown, the most worrying injury is the one sustained by skipper Chris Lucketti.
He came off the pitch clutching his side and is believed to have pulled muscles around his rib cage. Tests were due to take place on him today.
Brown said: "Ricardo had a recurrence of his knee problem so we took him off and Chris Lucketti seems to have a tear to the muscle around his ribs which is very worrying, becaue he has been an inspirational captain this season.
"We hope they are both fit for Saturday because the game at Millwall is a lot more important to us, a run in the Worthington Cup is just a bonus to us."
Eddie Lewis once again proved instrumental, setting one up as well as scoring his first goal for North End - despite playing on the right.
Brown added that the decision to switch Lewis' wing position was assistant Billy Davies' idea.
He said: "Billy thought we should put Eddie on the right in the second half and we did that and he set up the first goal for Ricardo and scored the second.
"We did very well against ten-men. It can be very hard to play against ten-men, but we did the right things, we used the full width of the pitch and stretche them as best we could.
"We made three important changes tonight, leaving out three regulars Murdoch, Skora and Cresswell, but we still did the job.
"We kept a clean sheet and David Lucas didn't really have that much to do in either half."
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