I suppose this is a case of drinking at the Last Chance Saloon as an old enemy turn up at Bescot tomorrow, in the shape of Port Vale. The terrible run of home defeats have left us standing on the trapdoor with the hinges creaking and we certainly don’t want a home defeat at the hands of our dear Staffordshire rivals to send us down. Oh dear, no.

Gerrard is set to miss out once more with knee ligament damage. The former Everton man will receive a late fitness test, but is not expected to figure and there are also question marks over Grant Smith, recovering from his groin problem, and Kevin James, whose hamstrings are proving to be as fragile as the Forest fans warned us they would be when we took him on loan.

On top of that, we lost Paul Devlin this week to a bad bout of Dummy Spittingoutitis and Scott (who?) Fitzgerald was sent back to Brentford, to, presumably, work on his novel writing, as it looks like he’ll never make a footballer. On top of that, Wrack and Nicholls are, of course, still missing.

To balance up some of that, re-inforcements have arrived, in the shape of Daryl Taylor, back from his loan spell at Hereford, and he might get a spot in the 16, as should Ishmel Demontagnac, hopefully now raring to go.

Formation is the key and we will have to see if we end up 3 5 2, or 4 4 2, as that is key to the participation of some players, such as Mads Timm (unlikely to figure in a 4 4 2) and Ishmel (unlikely to figure in a 3 5 2).

As for Vale, as we pointed out earlier this week, they do have problems up front. Youth team striker Louis Briscoe is set for a call-up for the game and looks like being considered ahead of Trinidad and Tobago International Hector Sam, who hasn’t played for the first team since breaking his ankle in August, but needs to break through to have a chance of making his country’s World Cup squad.
Former Saddler Michael Husbands is out for the rest of the season after a hernia operation and hopes are fading that Nathan Lowndes will be fit following a twisted ankle. Lee Matthews is also out of the reckoning after picking up a hamstring injury in Monday’s reserve match.

Vale go into the game in 11th place in the table, clear of any real danger of relegation and highly unlikely to make it into the play-offs, so this is a little “end of season” for them, hopefully.

They are, though, 10th in the away form table, so their record outside of the Potteries is somewhat better than that at the “Wembley of the North”, which is a worry.

They have also won their last two games - at home to the Franchise, which is no big deal, but the second was to Swansea City. They were, however, winless in March, drawing twice and losing twice.

Well, on Tuesday, I predicted a home defeat, in the certain expectation that we would promptly win and we didn’t (thanks to the blind officials), so I’ll revert to a proper assessment. I think we’re going to win this one. What’s more, if we can get an early goal, I think the confidence may start coming back and we could then win easily. I’ll probably be wrong.