DAVID CUFFLEY Darren Huckerby may not get the chance to get his teeth into Northampton Town's defence - as the City forward heads for the dentist's chair. Nigel Worthington revealed that 30-year-old Huckerby was a doubtful starter for the final pre-season friendly against the Cobblers at Carrow Road, but not with a typical football injury.

DAVID CUFFLEY

Darren Huckerby may not get the chance to get his teeth into Northampton Town's defence tomorrow - as the City forward heads for the dentist's chair.

Manager Nigel Worthington revealed that 30-year-old Huckerby was a doubtful starter for the final pre-season friendly against the Cobblers at Carrow Road (3pm), but not with a typical football injury.

“Darren has a bit of a tooth problem. We're not sure at the moment but he may have to have a tooth taken out today,” said Worthington.

“In that case, we'll have to see how he is as regards tomorrow's game.”

Better news for the Canaries is that skipper Adam Drury is expected to return at left-back after missing Wednesday's 2-1 defeat by Newcastle because of a tight hamstring.

“I'm hopeful Adam will be fully recovered. There are one or two other bumps and knocks but nothing serious.”

Tomorrow's match represents the last chance for Worthington to fine tune his preferred line-up before the Coca-Cola Championship season kicks off at Leeds a week later.

He said: “Northampton had an excellent season last year. Now they have a different manager in John Gorman. I've known John very well over the years and they like to play football so it should be a very good workout for us.”

Northampton, promoted to League One at the end of last season under Colin Calderwood - who has since moved to Nottingham Forest - have yet to win a pre-season game, following up their tour of Austria with a 3-1 defeat at Reading last Saturday and a 1-0 reverse at Peterborough on Tuesday.

But boss Gorman said he took a number of positives from the game at Peterborough.

He said: “I left four or five starters out at the start of the game to give some of the youngsters a run out. The scorelines haven't gone our way, but I have always said winning pre-season games means nothing apart from breeding confidence, but the confidence here is fine because we did OK on Tuesday.

“Norwich will be a good game for us on Saturday. We have not won a game yet but if we were playing for results in pre-season we could have won both games on tour had we not changed the team in both games to give players a run out.

“We have got a few niggly little injuries but on the whole we have a full squad to choose from.”

Norwich City (likely squad) - Gallacher, Colin, Drury, Doherty, Shackell, Hughes, Safri, Etuhu, Huckerby, Earnshaw, McKenzie, Fleming, Spillane, Henderson, Robinson, Ryan Jarvis, McVeigh, Thorne, Lewis.

Northampton Town (from) - Harper, Crowe, Holt, Chambers, Doig, Taylor, Kirk, McGleish, Aiston, Jess, Bunn, Burnell, Johnson, Dyche, Johnson, Green, Mitchell, Bojic, Dolman, Cross, Bonner, Gilligan.

Tickets tomorrow are £6 for adults, £4 for over-60s and students and £1 for under-16s. The upper tiers in the Barclay Stand and Norwich and Peterborough Stand will be closed. Details from the Carrow Road box office on 0870 444 1902.