Rovers official website met up with Paul Dickov at his Pre Brighton press at Cantley Park this morning (Thursday).
“As you aware the team will be without Richie Wellens as he serves the first game of his two match suspension. Everybody knows what a big player Richie is, but what it does do is give one of the other lads a chance to come in for the next couple of games to stake a claim for the place in the side.
“Who comes in? Well, I’m not going to try and be clever but it’s going to be between Dean Furman and Mark De Val, they’ve both been training well and are both good lads, so we will look at it on Friday. There may be a slight possibility that we might be changing the system a little bit to get another ball player in the middle of the park. This is something we are working on today and tomorrow.
“We are considering changing the dynamic which does show you the value of Richie to the team. He’s a big player for us but we have other players who can come in and do a job as it is all about being a squad. We believe we’ve got players who can hurt Brighton with James Coppinger and Mark Duffy being outstanding over the last 4 or 5 games. We feel they’ve got the ammunition to provide chances for the front men but also as they’ve shown recently the ability to score goals as well. Billy (Sharp) will be so much better for having had 3 games in a week after a spell with no regular football. This will help his eye for goal and match fitness. So as much as we will miss Richie, we will go down there in a really positive frame of mind.
“We are hopeful that Paul Keegan will be fit for the game. He looked a bit doubtful early in the week but we got it scanned and there was no tear or strain. There was a little bit of fluid and a little bit of tightness in his thigh which we’ve managed to get out, so it looking quite positive at the minute. We’ve got to be careful because we’ve got a lot of big games coming up so through sacrificing one game to get him ready for the rest of the season, might be the best way forward, but if Keegan is fine he’ll play.
We have a few little knocks and bruises but it’s part and parcel of the game and when you’ve had 3 games in a week, that’s what is going to happen.”