Thursday Snippets

* England U-19s beat Slovakia U-19s in front of a 3,013 strong crowd at Gresty Road on Thursday night.

In a warm up for October’s Under 19 European Championship qualifiers the young England side swept Slovakia aside to record a comfortable 2-0 victory.

Liverpool’s Michael Ngoo got things under way with a goal in the 16th minute after being set up by Everton’s Ross Barkley, who had dispossessed Slovak midfielder Patrik Jacko.

England dominated most of the match and got a deserved second in the 72nd minute with a 25 yard free kick from man of the match and Liverpool midfielder Jonjo Shelvey.

It was a successful evening all round with the 3,013 gate being a pretty decent turn out and hopefully securing a couple more youth internationals at Gresty Road in the future!

* Dario confirmed to the official website that Steve Phillips is nearly back to full fitness.

The 30 year old keeper signed a two year deal with the club in the summer but immediately underwent an operation to fix a troublesome shoulder injury.

After being out for the last two months, Phillips has now returned to some light training and Dario is expecting to see him back before the end of the month…

But how does that match up with Dario wishing to extend the loan of Rhys Taylor?

* Calvin Zola could return to the starting line up for Saturday’s trip to Stevenage. The big striker missed the home games against Barnet and Ipswich last month due to a knee injury and was left on the bench for the weekend trip to Lincoln.

However, with Stevenage offering more height and aggression Dario is looking to recall Zola to the forward line… at the expense of whom?

Finally, Matt Tootle is expected to return to the side for the home game against Bury next week. Toots has been ruled out for the last couple of weeks due to a hamstring injury.