First-team coach Gary Roberts met with the media ahead of Saturday evening’s Emirates FA Cup tie against Doncaster Rovers.
With players such as Ryan Stirk nearing a return, he said: “When you look at what he brings to the team, we have missed him. We’ve been really bare and short in there.
“We’ve put (Liam) Mandeville in there, (John) Fleck and (Tom) Naylor have played a lot of minutes in there.
“We haven’t been stretched, but they’ve played a lot of minutes and they’re two lads who are above 30, so you do miss Ryan Stirk, no doubt.
“He’s such a good player, good lad, really good person to have about and we’re really pleased to have him back.”
Having played Doncaster on Tuesday evening in the Vertu Trophy, Roberts spoke about what he expected from the visitors.
He said: “Not too dissimilar, I think they’re quite drilled as a club. They’ve flattened a lot of teams in the Vertu Trophy. We’ve watched the Grimsby one, they flattened Grimsby, they’ve beaten Bradford, they obviously beat us.
“But their first team are pretty similar in the way they play. Those lads (who played on Tuesday) can go into their first team and play in the same system. Grant McCann has done a superb job with them.
“They’ve been unlucky in the league games, they should have a lot more wins and that’s my opinion. We’ve probably seen eight or nine games of them. They’re a really decent team and I don’t think they’ll be too dissimilar in the way they play on Saturday night.”
Lastly, Roberts spoke about the importance of the FA Cup to the squad and the club as a whole.
“We’ve had some good games here,” he said. “Leyton Orient came here with their tails up, we’ve beaten Pompey and Northampton and we had a great game with West Brom.
“Tomorrow’s the same, it’s not a derby but it’s a local team coming here who bring a lot of fans. Can we make the third round again? 100%. We’ve got to believe that in our dressing room, in our office and in and around the stadium.”
Tickets for Saturday’s 7:30pm kick-off against Doncaster Rovers in round three of the FA Cup are available here.
