Aaron Wildig likely to be out until New Year

The 21-year-old is already into this third week out with bone bruising, after he was hurt against Notts County in a 1-0 home win on November 23.

But Wildig was out running for the first time at training this morning, although he is still a week away from joining in with the rest of the squad.

However, the player's target of a Boxing Day return at home to Tranmere Rovers appears to be "over-optimistic," with manager Graham Turner admitting he may not be back until 2014.

He said: "Aaron Wildig has started some light running this morning, so he won't be far off. It will probably be another week before he is able to join in with the rest of the group.

"He's done a lot of cycling under the supervision of the medical department, because that takes a lot of weight off the knee, and is now back running for the first time.

"We are hoping he will back in the New Year, there's a possibility that Boxing Day might be over-optimistic for him. That's more of a realistic chance."

Turner has seen good and bad from his side in their last two games, a 3-1 victory at Stevenage followed by a disappointing 1-0 defeat against Walsall at the Greenhous Meadow on Saturday.

The Town boss has demanded better from his players in their next League One fixture, a trip to fellow strugglers Crewe on Saturday.

He said: "Now the initial reaction is over and done with, the moaning and everything else, you look for the reasons why after the calmness of a few days to reflect.

"The overall performance and the level of work was not good enough, I expected more after an excellent victory at Stevenage.

"To then produce a display like that against Walsall is a mystery, maybe being without a game the previous Saturday was a factor.

"Now we need to improve on that performance at Crewe and prepare ourselves for that. We can't get Walsall back but we can make sure it doesn't happen again."