IN-FORM midfielder Neil Barrett remains doubtful for tomorrow’s trip to bottom-of-the-table Histon.

Barrett missed Tuesday night’s 1-0 home victory over Grimsby and is losing his battle to shrug off a knee problem to be fit in time for the Blue Square Bet Premier clash in Cambridgeshire.

Strikers Michael Rankine and Ashley Chambers are expected to return, however, having recovered from knocks that also kept them sidelined against the Mariners.

City boss Gary Mills said: “Michael Rankine has trained with us and Ashley Chambers should be OK but Neil Barrett is struggling the most out of all of them. He’s taken a bang on his kneecap and it’s not quite cleared up yet.

“Otherwise, everybody is fine although David McGurk has been a little bit ill.”

With Rankine and Chambers available again, Mills will have at least a couple of selection dilemmas.

He said: “I’m paid to make decisions and have broad shoulders.

“A few players will be disappointed tomorrow but they understand the competition for places.

“The players that came in on Tuesday showed that they want to stay in the side and play for this club. You can only keep 11 players happy, that never changes.”

City endured a poor record against teams from the lower reaches last season and have also lost at relegation-threatened Eastbourne and Forest Green during the current campaign.

But the team have despatched the likes of bottom-eight outfits Gateshead and Southport under Mills, who added: “If you are going to be successful in this league, you have to go to places like Histon and Gateshead and win.

“You have to be right mentally and we should have enough if we play exactly the same as we have been doing.”

Histon suffered a five-point deduction this week, which will cast them six adrift at the bottom when applied on January 20.

Mills, however, believes the Glass World Stadium will, by no means, be accepting relegation as an inevitability yet.

He also knows that, with Cambridge United and Darlington both in FA Trophy action, tomorrow’s match represents a great chance for his side, should they take maximum points, to move into the division’s top ten for the first time since September.

He said: “Histon are still at a stage where they will be battling to win every game to give themselves every chance of staying up and it’s also a big game for us.”

“He added: “There are only three league games taking place so it’s our opportunity to capitalise.

“It’s all right having games in hand but you have to win them.”

As a second-half substitute against Grimsby, Levi Mackin enjoyed his first league run-out since suffering knee ligament damage on the opening day of the season.

He is unlikely to return to the starting line-up at Histon but Mills had plenty of words of encouragement for the 24-year-old midfielder, saying: “Levi has a good attitude and gets on with his job.

“I am trying to organise a few reserve games to get his match fitness up because I haven’t seen much of him in a full game but I like what I have seen and I think he is somebody who suits me and the way I like my team to play. The door’s certainly not shut on him.

“Not being in the team has been hard for him but we’ve talked about that and he’s just got to keep plugging away.”

Mills also added that he was slightly miffed Djoumin Sangare had failed to let him know that his move to Moroccan side Casablanca had fallen through before deciding to sign for League Two outfit Oxford United.

Utility man Sangare turned down the opportunity to sign a new contract with City last month but Mills might have been ready to offer him another chance at Bootham Crescent, saying: “I didn’t know his move had fallen through.

“I kept hearing he was back and a couple of League clubs rang me asking about him so there’s a tinge of disappointment for me that he did not get back in touch to let me know the deal had fallen through.

“But he’s got himself to Oxford and has a chance to prove himself in the League.”

Mills, nevertheless, added that he was in no rush to bolster his ranks before the closure of the transfer window.

He said: “I’ve got a good squad of players. We’ve got until the end of the month if we want to add to that but, unless somebody comes along that would drastically improve us, then why would I want to change things?

“The players are playing for me, the football club and their own pride. The belief and confidence is there.

“As a manager, you always want to improve and I will keep working away on that but it’s not easy to improve the squad in a lot of areas at the moment.”