Roca faces fitness test ahead of Chorley encounter

Carlos Roca will have a fitness test ahead of Saturday’s early afternoon kick-off against Chorley at Victory Park with the rest of FC United’s squad available and raring to go.

Roca picked up a dead leg in Tuesday night’s 3-1 defeat at Kendal and although assistant manager Roy Soule says the winger is still feeling ‘a little tender’ he added that he’s got a good chance of recovering in time for Saturday’s game.

With FC United refusing to accept the offered ticket allocation for this fixture, it will be just one of a handful of times where the team isn’t backed by the majority of the crowd. Soule and manager Karl Marginson, who is making a good recovery from illness, have often spoken about the importance of our notoriously vocal supporters and the role they can play, so obviously it will be a blow not to have them there on the day.

However, Soule believes it will make the players even more determined to get a result. He said: “The supporters have made their decision not to attend and the staff and the players respect that. We have our job to do though and we hope that we can go there, put on a good performance and come away with three points for everyone.???

Whilst the Reds have had a mixed start to the season with four wins, three defeats and one draw, Chorley have had a pretty solid start with five wins, two draws and one defeat. Encouragingly though, in their last three home games against Northwich Victoria, Marine and Buxton, the Magpies have only managed to collect four points and score three goals, so Victory Park is far from being a fortress.

Chorley versus FC United of Manchester kicks-off at 12.30pm on Saturday. The match is all ticket on police advice.