CHRIS LAKEY Peter Grant admits he is preparing for bad news over Robert Earnshaw's groin injury today.The City striker's appointment with a specialist should give the City boss a clearer indication of exactly how long he will be without his leading scorer - but says the initial signs are not encouraging.

CHRIS LAKEY

Peter Grant admits he is preparing for bad news over Robert Earnshaw's groin injury today.

The City striker's appointment with a specialist should give the City boss a clearer indication of exactly how long he will be without his leading scorer - but says the initial signs are not encouraging.

“To be fair he was in a lot of pain the other day there and I am not expecting the best news to be honest,” said Grant. “I have myself ready for that.

“I don't know what top expect. I am not a physio, obviously. Sometimes you need surgery to make sure it is okay, sometimes you need surgery if it's major, so there are two ways to look at that. I am hoping not, obviously.

“I wouldn't know where to start until I get word from them, but you are always hoping it's only one or two weeks. But groins are very, very difficult to judge, but the way he fell I was fearing the worst but hopefully the surgeon can give me good news and break my weekend up a little bit.”

The first signs of something amiss came when Earnshaw went down in a heap at the Colney training centre at the end of the final session of the week on Friday.

“It was the last kick of training,” explained Grant. “The wee man was doing a little bit extra and we thought he was winding us up because he had hit the ball poorly.”

While Grant's problem is how to replace Earnshaw, long- or short-term, it does raise another issue - like who cans core the goals in his absence.

“I just think he has had a hell of a lot of games, doing a lot of travelling with us and Wales, and I can't afford to rest him because nobody else seems to score,” he said. “We are having too many chances and missing them or people taking the wrong options. So that is the reason I have had to flog a dead horse at times. That's when you ask people to come and step up to the plate and take responsibility and they have not done that yet.”

Grant pointed the finger at his two wide men, Darren Huckerby and Lee Croft, for failing to turn quality situations into goals against Plymouth on Saturday.

“Huckerby had should have rolled the ball across - it was a tap-in for Dion and Crofty should have rolled it across - it was a tap-in for Dion,” he complained. “But they try and be clever, whatever, I don't know. That is why Earnie is so important, that's why he has got 17 goals, because he will put the ball in the back of the net without blinking.

“We are just fortunate enough we have got (Chris) Brown in, but it is a massive blow to lose the wee man. But we don't have enough people putting pressure on each other all over the pitch so I will maybe have to make us more dogged to get through this period and that sometimes goes away from my beliefs. But there are two ways to skin a cat and hopefully I can make that right decision in the coming weeks.”