Ignore the table warns Huddersfield Town midfielder Michael Collins

Feb 20 2010 by Dougie Thomson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

“Everyone is in your face, you have to be sharp all the way through and you have to be ready to battle for those second balls.

“Hopefully, we’re doing that, and I certainly think that in some of the games we’ve drawn of late, we would have been beaten in past seasons.”

After today’s trip to Hartlepool, it’s Tranmere away on Tuesday, and Town could come face to face with their former goalkeeper and physio Lee Martin.

With Rovers’ existing physio Les Parry now their manager as well, the Prenton Park club were looking for back up.

And Martin, who left Town during the 2008 close-season after five years’ service, has joined up until the end of the current campaign.

Existing commitments – Martin has his own Huddersfield practice and also works with the English Institute of Sport – mean he won’t be with Tranmere on Saturdays.

Parry, who has had a dual role since John Barnes departed in October and guided Tranmere to a 3-3 draw at the Galpharm in December, explained: “It has not been easy to find the right person to come in to work as a physio because I needed someone who has been in football.

“I know Lee well. He played in goal for Huddersfield, coached their goalkeepers and then became a physio.

“I needed someone I could push straight into the treatment room and leave to get on with things.

“It was no good me bringing in a physio fresh from university. I would have been going back in every two minutes to check things out and to answer questions.

“With Lee I won’t need to do that. He knows how to handle players and he’s the world’s nicest lad, the type you could not dislike. It’s great to have him here.”

Martin has already been busy, dealing with defender Marlon Broomes and Ian Goodison.

Ex-Sheffield Wednesday man Broomes jarred a knee during last Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Southend, when Jamaican international Goodison played despite carrying an ankle injury.

Parry, whose side host Leyton Orient today, added: “They are both concerns and we have to be very careful with Ian because he is important to us.”