Millington handed injury boost ahead of Town's home game with Gateshead on Tuesday

Town boss Chris Millington says defender Jordan Keane, midfielder Kian Spence and forward Osayamen Osawe will all be available for Tuesday night's home game with Gateshead.
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The trio weren't involved in Halifax's last game, a 1-1 draw at Maidenhead.

But they are set to hand Millington a boost to his squad ahead of the match on Tuesday.

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"Kian will be available for selection," said the Halifax boss.

Pre-Season friendly Farsley Celtic v Halifax Town.
Halifax Town's manager Chris Millington..
23rd July 2022.
Picture : Jonathan GawthorpePre-Season friendly Farsley Celtic v Halifax Town.
Halifax Town's manager Chris Millington..
23rd July 2022.
Picture : Jonathan Gawthorpe
Pre-Season friendly Farsley Celtic v Halifax Town. Halifax Town's manager Chris Millington.. 23rd July 2022. Picture : Jonathan Gawthorpe

"It might have been touch and go for Saturday but we expect him to be available for selection for Tuesday night."

On defender Keane, Millington said:

"He's available for selection. The problem Jordan had was mainly a result of that crazy turnaround of the two games in three days over the Bank Holiday weekend.

"But he's back to being available now."

And on Osawe, Millington said: "He's building up his fitness and will be available for selection."

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Osawe has made just one substitute appearance since joining Halifax, and Millington admits he is short of match fitness.

"We're clearly playing catch-up a bit in terms of clawing back points that we should have gained in the earlier games, so we can't be too frivolous with giving lads minutes to build up match fitness.

"But we certainly will be looking to do that over the next two or three games for him."

Matty Warburton made his first appearance of the season at Maidenhead a a substitute.

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"Warby came through Maidenhead well, he's still building up his match sharpness and will need more minutes to do that, but it's great to have him back and available," Millington said.

Captain Tom Clarke missed the draw at Maidenhead and looks set to be unavailable again on Tuesday due to an ankle injury.

"Tom's making some good progress. He may not quite make Tuesday but hopefully will be available for selection Saturday as a worst case scenario," said Millington.

Midfielder Luke Summerfield has also been ruled out with an ankle problem.

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"Summers will be a little while, he's not going to be available this week," Millington said.

"We'll reassess him in a week's time and see where he's up to."

Town's scheduled game at home to Dorking was called off on Saturday as part of English football's response to the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

"I would have loved for our game to go ahead because we felt like we'd had a good training week and we were ready for Dorking, and the lads were raring to go," said Millington.

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"But it's above my pay grade to decide what's deemed as respectful and what's not.

"If the view is that a postponement is the right thing to do to pay proper respect for the Queen then so be it."

Millington added: "It was a day off (on Saturday). They were given work to do away from the training ground, so we'll go into tomorrow fully rested and raring to go."

The Town boss said Saturday's postponement did give some players a chance to rest and recuperate ahead of Tuesday's game.

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"One or two lads who played an awful lot of minutes who just needed to rest certain little knocks, and one or two lads who are on their way back from injury got a little bit more of an easy run-in to Tuesday night," he said.

"So in some respects there are benefits to having this down time"

Read more from the Town boss tomorrow (Monday) on the Courier website.

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