Already midfielder Will McDonagh is back in the reckoning after shaking off a knee injury to appear on the bench at Mansfield on Saturday. But the possible return of Billy, who ripped a thigh muscle in the 2-1 home defeat by Southend on March 27, is the biggest surprise. United feared he would be out for the rest of the season but the 30-year-old veteran has worked hard to regain fitness and is now expected to feature in the closing two games. Raven had been expected to return a fortnight ago but suffered a recurrence of his injury. Now he is facing a tester in today's reserve match at Oldham. If he comes through, he will be a contender to replace the suspended Kevin Gray against the Robins. Henderson has been out for three months with ankle ligament damage. He has returned to training and has an outside chance of being involved in the final two fixtures. Manager Paul Simpson will be hoping he will be able to give him an extra option up front alongside Andy Preece, Craig Farrell, Kelvin Langmead, Richie Foran and Peter Duffield. Simpson himself is hoping to be available for the final relegation battles. He named himself on the bench at Field Mill despite not being fully fit. An extra seven days to prepare will give him a better chance of starting a match that United must win to keep alive their chances of Football League survival. The United ticket office was doing a roaring trade today in tickets for Saturday's match, which has been declared all-ticket with none available on the day. The office will be open until 5pm on Friday. United's biggest attendance this season was 8,369 for the Darlington game on December 28 but officials were confident this week that that figure would be surpassed at the weekend. The last time Carlisle attracted a five-figure gate was for the opening game of last season when 11,041 saw them play Hartlepool United. Tickets for the big screen showing of the game from Doncaster in the East Stand also went on sale today, priced at £10 adults and £5 concessions. The capacity of the stand is 6,000. The Cumbrians will be hoping there will still be a chance they can beat the drop on the final day in order to boost the attendance at Brunton Park. The car park will be open and refreshments will be available. Picture from News & Star |
