Still quick to reject Tranmere’s approach for McNulty

The Prenton Park club, managed for former Luton chief Gary Brabin made an approach for the Town skipper after he was dropped to the bench recently.

However, speaking to the press this afternoon, Still confirmed McNulty remained an important part of his plans.

He said: “We haven’t made him available, they just asked because he wasn’t in the team and we said ‘no, it’s not something we’re looking to do’, so it was a lot of nothing really.

“They saw him not in the team, asked the question through Gary Brabin, I said, ‘well certainly at the moment there’s nothing to talk about.’

“We’re looking for combinations and would he have come back in the team had we won when he didn’t play, I don’t really know.

“We know the combination of him and Wilko (Luke Wilkinson) works, but we also know Scott Cuthbert works as well. Magnus (Okuonghae) is now getting fit, fit too, but if we’re solid there, there’s no need to dabble with it too much.”

McNulty could well continue his partnership with Luke Wilkinson that yielded Town’s first clean sheet of the campaign during the 1-0 win over Mansfield last Saturday, for the visit of AFC Wimbledon this weekend.

Although Scott Cuthbert is available from his ban, he might be ruled out through injury as Still added: “He’s got a little ankle problem, he trained early part of the week, we’re just have a look at his ankle, so we’ll see, I’m not sure.

“Steve wasn’t performing poorly before, it’s the mix and for whatever reason we were looking for that mix as we were conceding goals.

“He’d come in and played well against Leyton Orient in the cup game and played really, really well on Saturday, I was really pleased.

“He was disappointed not to play, but wasn’t affected by it. He came in and did terrific, he’s a big character, an important player for us, so the competition for the place is first class.”

The Town captain might well come up against old adversary Adebayo Akinfenwa on Saturday too and it’s a clash that Still will be looking forward to watching.

He added: “That’s going to make it competitive isn’t it. They’re two lads who will probably respect each other’s contributions, and might have a little dig in the game but arms around each other at the end.

“I think it’s contests like that, that are worth coming to see without the actual game itself. They’re too larger than life characters, so it adds to the interest.”