City are likely to be without the services of Ian Goodison when they take on Leyton Orient in the second leg of the play-off semi-final at Brisbane Road tomorrow. He sustained a knee injury late in the first leg and had to be substituted, the knock appears to be more serious than was initially thought. Brian Little is not ruling out his chances of a speedy recovery, but it looks more than likely that the Jamaican international will not be risked. In his place will come Mark Greaves or Mark Atkins, both perfectly proficient defenders.

Apart from Goodison’s injury, City will not need to make any changes from Sunday. Whether any are made depends on who Little chooses to partner Francis up front – Rowe was selected last time out, but Eyre scored the crucial goal. Both players would be unlucky to miss out; a pleasing indication of the sudden strength in depth we have.

For Orient, they have a largely unchanged team. Andy Harris is returning to fitness, but manager Tommy Taylor may opt to stay with Steve Castle, who played at Boothferry Park. Leading scorer Griffiths is serving the final game of a three-match ban and is again unavailable, meaning youngster Jabo Ihebre will likely play again. Big things are expected of him at Brisbane Road, and he appears to be a pacy, talented forward. Orient will need him – unless they score they’re out. City’s game plan is clear – keep a clean sheet. Doing so takes us to Cardiff and the play-off final, failing to do so, and it’s easy to see City struggling to score.

The game IS all-ticket. City’s 3,000 allocation is very nearly sold out, and Orient are approaching sell-out too, meaning 13,000 should be in attendance. It’s make or break time – come on City.

Brian Little has an almost full squad to choose from as he leads City into their first ever play-off fixture today. The biggest doubts in midweek, Ian Goodison (back) and John Eyre (knee), are both available for selection having resumed training, the pair picked up knocks away to Southend and were rested for the trip to Carlisle last week. Mark Greaves required stitches after being on the receiving end of a nasty challenge late in the game at Brunton Park, but he has trained all week without problems.

One player who won’t be taking part is Theo Whitmore, scorer of both goals in our 2-2 draw at Brisbane Road. Early in the season we seemed dependent on him to get results but nowadays he appears not to feature in Brian Little’s plans, evidenced by his allowing the Jamaican FA to call him up for the Copa Caribe tournament, while demanding City’s other Reggae Boy Ian Goodison stays put. For the O’s, boss Tommy Taylor looks certain to throw 18 year old Jabo Ibehre into the fray once more, he made his full debut last week in the absence of 19-goal striker Carl Griffiths who is serving a four game suspension and scored twice against Macclesfield. Former Halifax and Scarborough striker and alleged a one time City target Chris Tate is likely to begin on the bench.

All 13500 tickets for this semi-final first leg have been sold, it promises to be a game to remember. Every man and his dog appears to have installed City as favourites going into this double header, and in truth it’s hard to see us coming a cropper against the Londoners. Nevertheless it’s still hard to come to terms with people in the media lavishing praise on the Tigers, listening to TalkSport’s 505 show on the way back from Carlisle last week was all very surreal, host Gary Newbon was dismissing the challenges from the other three sides involved, insisting it would be us that achieve promotion to the second division via the Nationwide Lottery. City playing the role of media darlings…we are charting undiscovered country indeed.

City travel to Cumbria and their final league game of the season safe in the knowledge that their play-off berth is secure no matter what the result. The point at Southend guaranteed City’s place in the top seven, and now it is merely a case of finishing as high as possible. Should the Tigers finish fourth or fifth, they will get home advantage in the second leg. As for their likely opponents, it could be anyone out of Hartlepool, Orient, Rochdale or Blackpool. As for the match which will decide it, it has no crucial bearing on promotion, nor relegation – Carlisle hauled themselves out of relegation trouble with a draw at Lincoln in midweek. They are planning to make a few changes for the game – Steve Soley will not play, and Scott Dobie looks very doubtful. Mick Galloway is recovering from injury and should be included in the squad, while Tony Hopper returns from suspension. Darren Carr and Mark Birch are banned, paving the way for several youngsters to play – Jonny Allen and Paul Anthony are in contention.

As for the Tigers, they will be largely unchanged. Gary Fletcher and Theodore Whitmore will probably play some part, if only to keep the match-fitness up ahead of the play-offs. Ian Goodison may be rested after his recent endeavours, but that aside it is hard to see Brian Little making too many changes. With two massive games looming, he cannot afford his side to relax now.
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City travel to Southend for the penultimate game of the regular season knowing that just a single point will mathematically guarantee them (at least) a play-off place. The 3-1 win over deposed leaders Chesterfield all but ensured a top-seven finish as only Rochdale can catch the Tigers, but one point means City can travel to struggling Carlisle on Saturday without any pressure. However, Rochdale must win both games to have any chance of overhauling us – it is virtually impossible to conceive us throwing it away now. The task of gaining a point at Southend has been made considerably easier by the Shrimpers dropping out of the play-off race at the weekend with a disappointing draw at home to Carlisle. It leaves them with nothing to play for but pride, which will work to City’s advantage. In theory anyway.

Brian Little may yet again be able to field an unchanged side, a remarkable luxury that has surely contributed considerably to our recent charge up the table. The only injury doubts are Kevin Francis, who has a strained muscle and Mark Atkins, struggling with a rib injury. Francis is expected to be fit enough to play, though Atkins may not be. That would likely see Greaves brought into the team, with Whitmore regaining his place on the bench. Little cited concerns over Tappa’s fitness as the reason he was left out of the 16 who faced Chesterfield on Saturday, as both he and compatriot Ian Goodison had played for Jamaica during the week.

For Southend, they have no injury worries and can field an unchanged side if they want, but with nothing to play for they may mix it up a bit. It’s a great relief that they sold Martin Carruthers to Scunthorpe on transfer deadline day. He posed major problems to City’s defence in the 1-1 draw between the sides at Boothferry Park back in October, and of course possesses the “returning strikers” curse all players are instantly gifted once they leave the Ark. Since his departure, Southend have looked far less threatening up front, and it is their goalscoring abilities that effectively ended their play-off bid. Like City, their top scorer is yet to break into double figures (David Lee, eight goals), but they lack the outstanding defence Brian Little is fortunate enough to have. They have no major injury or suspension worries, but are not in particularly good form and there is no reason we can’t record our third successive win at Roots Hall. With another absurdly large away support preparing to descend upon Southend-on-Sea, this match could be party time for the black and amber. We need a point, and the promised land is ours to explore. Come on you ‘Ull.