Micky Mellon's men have the stomach for a scrap

Saturday's unlikely 1-1 draw against dominant Bradford saw Town bounce back after two defeats and they are now two points above the drop zone with five games left.

Blackpool's 3-0 defeat at Rochdale has left the Tangerines two points below Mellon's side, who have two games in hand on them.

And the Town chief reckons his team, who host Sheffield United tomorrow night, are up for the battle.

"All the games are going to be like that now – about guts and courage and honesty," said Mellon.

"All the qualities the players showed on Saturday they're going to need, so it wouldn't be a surprise to me if Tuesday night goes very much the same.

"I trust the players and I know they can fight. Together we'll continue to do that. We'll always keep that belief.

"It is very tight and it's going to be like this until the end of the season."

Mellon believes Town showed belief in always thinking they had a chance of getting something from the game.

"You've got to fight and believe you'll get an opportunity," he said. "I always want my teams to be optimistic and believe they'll get that opportunity and it came for us and we got the equaliser.

"It was important we got a decent result on Saturday, but we're under no illusions at all that playing Wigan and going to Millwall was going to be anything other than tough. But the important thing was we bounced back."

James Wallace is ineligible tomorrow, as Town face his parent club. Kyle Vassell missed out at the weekend as Town have six loan players and can only field five in their 18. "We'll have to juggle the loan players around and pick a bench that has plan B or plan C," said Mellon.

Town welcome back captain Nathaniel Knight-Percival following a three-match ban while Zak Whitbread returned on Saturday.

"It's been a huge blow to lose two experienced centre-backs in two massive games, so to have them available is a big boost," said Mellon.