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The former Gloucester City and Merthyr forward trained last night so Collier could assess his fitness, and the boss admitted: "If he can't face Merthyr he'll be really disappointed. "Jason will be doing everything he can to play and get us a win against them. "However, if he is fit he's in with a good shout of a starting place alongside Mark Draycott.
Jason's an excellent player and is a great lad to have around the place. "We've missed him the last couple of weeks, especially in the dressing room where he's a big character. "He's very patriotic and is never slow to tell us about Wales winning the Six Nations or Cardiff reaching the FA Cup final. "He won't care that Merthyr are from his homeland - if anything it'll make him want to beat them even more."
Collier will have to tinker with his squad tomorrow, with Leigh Henry beginning a two-game ban, while David Stroud is doubtful with a knee injury. When the teams met at Pennydarren Park in October, Marine conceded two late goals to end up on the wrong end of a 3-1 scoreline. Collier said: "We were one down at half-time but came back to make it 1-1. "A draw at Merthyr would have been a good result, but we were a bit naive. "We went for the win and ended up coming away with nothing.
"This season has been a learning curve for us and I think that day taught us a big lesson. "We drill into the players that if we can't win a game then we must draw. "Sometimes the lads are a little bit disappointed to only get a point, but it's better than nothing. "The squad has evolved, although we've kept the basis of the young side, but added some experience to it. "Players like Gary Horgan, Chris Thompson and Jason Welsh have come in and together they've got hundreds of games under their belt at this level. "They've always got advice for the other players and say the right things at the right time and have been invaluable this season."
By Anthony Marshall Posted Friday April 11th 2008
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