SKIPPER Dave Allen is standing by for a long-awaited AFC Totton comeback at Kidlington on Saturday.

The experienced campaigner has yet to play this season due to foot problems.

Having got over one injury, he trod on a drill at work and the wound became infected, prolonging his stay on the sidelines.

Allen returned to training last week and was an unused sub for Saturday’s 2-1 Evo-Stik South West win over Didcot.

Ideally manager Louis Langdown would like to ease the defender back into action little by by little.

But, with centre-back Callum Chugg and midfielder Charlie Gunson both serving one-match bans for five bookings on Saturday and Sam Roberts still injured, it could be a case of needs must.

Langdown said: “Dave’s got another week’s training under his belt and could be in contention to start.

“Callum’s not available, Sam's still out and we may be without (Aldershot loan defender) Jack Barker again.

“Dave was last year’s player-of-the-season and to have the skipper back with all his know-how is great.

“He was on the bench last Saturday but just to have him around with what he says in the changing room and how he conducts himself is important to us.

“There’s every chance we may throw him at Kidlington, but we’ve got Saturday-Tuesday games coming up for the best part of two months now and I don’t want to do him a disservice by bringing him back too soon.”

It’s been an excellent week for the Stags with the Didcot win followed by the under-18s beating Ash United in a penalty shootout to reach the FA Youth Cup first round proper.

They now face Cheltenham Town at the Total Branding Community Stadium on Monday (November 6. 7.45pm).

With several of Totton’s first team not long out of youth football themselves, there is every incentive for the under-18s to impress.

“We’re playing a young side in the Southern League and hopefully our youth team can see that. It bodes well for the future,” said Langdown, who hopes to have teenage winger Curtis Young back for the Kidlington trip.

In the short term, however, the Totton boss is weighing up a possible new signing to help the Stags through a packed programme of fixtures.

“We’ve had a lad training with us who’s coming to this area and has played in this league and the league above,” the boss explained.

“We’ve got our youth team, but some of those lads are already playing five times a week.

"We’ve got players out on loan at Bemerton who are also playing college, Hampshire and under-18s football.

"It’s something we’ll have to look at moving forward because they’ll end up getting injured or burnt out.”