Crewe V Dagenham & Redbridge, Saturday, January 21, 3pm

Daggers are sweating on the fitness of strikers Josh Scott and Brian Woodall as they prepare to get their league campaign back on track against Crewe.

The pair missed the midweek 5-0 thrashing at Millwall in the FA Cup third round replay with knee and groin injuries respectively, leaving Jon Nurse as the only fully fit recognised striker available.

But, while Scott would appear to be a week away from easing manager John Still’s attacking headache, he was more confident of Woodall’s chances of featuring at Gresty Road.

“Brian maybe, Josh I’m not sure,” said Still.

“We took a little bit of a chance with Brian on Saturday (v Hereford), we weren’t sure, but he wanted to play. On reflection may be he shouldn’t have.

“Josh is back in training, he needs to perhaps step that up this week and if he’s not back in this week it will be the following week.

“We haven’t had a partnership at all this year, whether its 4-4-2 or 4-3-3, we haven’t had a combination in that particular position.

“And we haven’t really had combinations in the central midfield position and it’s the spine of the team, so hopefully over the next few weeks we’ll be able to find the rest of that spine and push on and put in some good performances.

“Hopefully then we’ll keep the good form going and turn that into some decent results.”

Standing by to replace the pair are Adam Cunnington – who was cup-tied v Millwall – and Rob Edmans, who will be pushing for his league debut, after completing 45 minutes at the New Den.

Cristian Montano is also expected to return to the starting line-up, after being ineligible for the FA Cup, while captain Mark Arber is closing in on a first team return after recovering from a hernia injury.

Sam Williams (knee), Kevin Maher (foot), Luke Howell (knee) and Peter Gain (knee) are all definitely out, while Damien McCrory (ankle) is doubtful.

Crewe will be without Lee Bell (hernia), Shaun Miller (hamstring) and Carl Martin (hip), while AJ Leitch-Smith (thigh) is doubtful.

Midfielder Jamie Lowry has had his loan extended from Chesterfield and looks set to start.