Rio Adebisi has pushed himself into the reckoning for a first start in more than nine months, thanks to his display off the bench at Carlisle United.
That’s according to Manager Alex Morris, who says the 22-year-old caught the eye with his performance in the second-half of the 0-0 draw.
Adebisi, who has only recently returned to fitness after a long injury lay-off, replaced Zac Williams at left-back just before half-time at Brunton Park.
Now he is in contention to start when Gillingham visit Mornflake Stadium on Saturday (3pm).
Morris said: “Rio came in and did really well. He looks like he is rediscovering the form we all know he is capable of.
“He slotted in well alongside the two centre-halves, who were magnificent, absolutely faultless.
“It is hugely important for Rio, because that gives him the extra minutes on the pitch he needs. He can take that into the game against Gillingham, if we decide to start him.
“You can get minutes from Under-23 football but that doesn’t replicate what you get from playing in a competitive League Two fixture.
“We now have options in that left-back position if we want to change things around.”
Morris said 18-year-old Williams was withdrawn to guard against him picking up a second yellow card of the afternoon.
He explained: “Zac was making some not-so-good decisions, I think we all saw that, and that was exacerbated by a booking.
“There was a real worry that that could lead to another booking, and we’d be down to 10 men.
"We had to act quickly because the whole complexion of the game changes when you go down to 10 men, particularly away from home, as we saw at Salford.”