Basingstoke news and sport from the Basingstoke Gazette

Touch and go for Claus

From the archive, first published Wednesday 29th Sep 1999.

Claus Lundekvam is battling to be fit for the home game against Derby and hoping the extra two days will prove crucial.

The fixture has been put back to next Monday for live screening by Sky and the 48 hour delay might just prove enough for the Norwegian defender to recover from a knee injury.

Lundekvam was stretchered off in Saturday's 3-3 draw at Old Trafford after twisting a knee in a powerful sliding tackle on Mikael Silvestre.

Although it has settled and improved slightly, it is still swollen and he admitted: "I could be struggling for Monday.

"But hopefully the extra couple of days will help. I am walking a bit better today and I don't think there is any ligament damage. It is badly bruised and there is a bit of a twist but I just hope it settles down.

"I did not want to go off but I had no choice. I felt it straight away. It was a great tackle - I got the ball and the man so it was good."

Lundekvam missed the final quarter of the game having treatment in the dressing room and has still not seen the highlights of the team's triumph even on television.

He added: "By all accounts Jason Dodd and Matthew Oakley did a great job filling in and it was a great result. Not many teams go up there and score three goals and we showed a lot of character to come back twice.

"We would certainly have settled for that result beforehand but we ended up disappointed not to win it when James Beattie went through.

"In the last three league games we have played really well and the important thing now is to carry it on against Derby on Monday."

Saints still have tickets available on general sale for the game giving supporters another chance to get the ticket stubs they will need to obtain membership.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.

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