Adrian Coote and Scott McGleish could be the latest weapons to end Colchester United's worrying goal drought if Kevin Rapley fails a fitness test.
Under-fire U's boss Steve Whitton is set to shuffle his strikers cards again by pitching the as-yet untried partnership into tomorrow's vital away trip to Swindon Town.
Whitton said: "We've tried every other strike combination except Coote and McGleish and they could get their chance if Raps doesn't make it."
Rapley has trained hardly at all this week after damaging a calf muscle against Wycombe Wanderers.
And if Coote and McGleish do hit it off up front, Whitton will be looking for them to end a very worrying lean run that has yielded just four goals in the previous 11 outings.
The U's boss confessed to being totally confounded by his team's current lack of goals.
He said: "In all my years in professional football - 24 with Coventry, West Ham, Birmingham, Sheffield Wednesday, Ipswich and now the U's - I have never known anything like it.
"To have five strikers fighting for two places in the side and not a single one of them scoring is almost unbelievable. But that's what's been happening to us and there's no good reasons for it.
"We've had the lads together and have listened to all their views and together we WILL get through this tough period.
"No-one has worked harder than we all have to put this bad run right.
"We've devised every different type of finishing you can think of, volleying, heading, plain shooting. You name it we've done it, but we can't guarantee the goals will suddenly start flowing.
"What we can guarantee is the fact that the players are still very positive and have been prepared right.
"That's all we need to kick-start our season - we need a couple of good results now.
"If they respond in the right way tomorrow against a Swindon side, who in many ways are a lot worse off than us, we could well be in line for a positive result."
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Published Friday October 11, 2002
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