Liam Vincent is set to serve the first of a three-match ban with the visit to Rochdale tomorrow, having seen red in Sutton’s last outing.
The former Tonbridge Angels man was sent off for a late lunge on Scunthorpe United’s Joe Rowley, and joins fellow left back Eduino Vaz on the sidelines, having missed Saturday’s defeat to the Iron after a scan confirmed his absence due to a knock sustained against Forest Green Rovers.
Vincent had previously recovered from a dead leg himself, but is now set to miss Bank Holiday Monday’s trip to the Crown Oil Arena, as well as the home games against Carlisle United and Boreham Wood.
This could bring about an opportunity for academy product Junior Eccleston, who Head Coach Steve Morison has previously praised for his ‘diligence’ and ‘character’ after the defender made his first appearance of the season when he replaced Vaz at the New Lawn, and was called upon again on Saturday when he replaced captain Aaron Jones after Vincent’s sending off.
Meanwhile, Mo Dabre edged ever closer to making his Sutton debut after appearing on the bench for the first time on Saturday.
The Italian midfielder has so far been absent due to a problem picked up in pre-season, but was finally among the substitutes in the defeat to the Iron having made strong progress in his recovery.
Furthermore, Monday’s clash sees another extremely quick turnaround for the U’s with just a day separating the defeat to Scunthorpe and the Bank Holiday trip to Rochdale. This allowed Brandon Njoku to make his first start for the club on Saturday, and could spark another host of changes to the team in Greater Manchester.
“He [Njoku] deserved to start [on Saturday]” said Morison”. “Obviously, Naders played again Wednesday and obviously we’ve got another game Monday so I was just trying to utilise the squad and give Brandon a start and I thought he was excellent, to be fair. Should have and maybe could have had more goals, but he was a great cross, great header, and yeah, we should be going on and winning the game from that Monday.”
