CITY will try again to get to the bottom of James Hanson’s ongoing calf problem as the striker races to be fit for the play-off second leg.

Yesterday’s 3-1 home loss to Millwall leaves Phil Parkinson’s side with a huge task on their hands in the return at the Den on Friday.

And they might have to do it without Hanson again after he sat it out again.

City’s top scorer will have another scan today but Parkinson admits they are still no nearer finding a solution.

He said: “Hanson has not made any progress with his calf.

“He’s having another scan so hopefully we can investigate that further. But at the moment you’d have to say he is a doubt.

“It’s very frustrating for us. He’s been a key player over the years.

“But I thought (Jamie) Proctor was outstanding and worked tirelessly for the team. He was very unlucky not to have a penalty in the second half when he got brought down.”

Parkinson is more optimistic on Reece Burke, who also missed out despite doing some training on Saturday.

“Reece is closer than Hans,” added the City boss. “He did a bit of training but wasn’t comfortable with his hip.

“Obviously to put a young player in a game like that when he’s not quite right is too big a risk.

“But if Hans and Burkey are fit and Billy Clarke is available, they’ll add strength to the squad going down to Millwall on Friday.”

City have come back from home deficits on their previous two play-off visits to still win promotion and Parkinson is not writing off their chances.

But he was unhappy with two of Millwall’s three goals as they overhauled Tony McMahon’s early penalty to lead 3-1 by half-time. Hanson’s absence was felt defensively when Lions skipper Steve Morison scored from a corner.

Parkinson said: “We’re not used to conceding. We hadn’t conceded three at home all season.

“But they were soft goals. We need to look at that and make sure we’re better in those situations when we go down to Millwall on Friday.

“I don’t think Millwall are going to do anything different to surprise us. We’ve just got to be able to deal with it better than we did.

“We will do and if it is Millwall who progress to Wembley, we’ve got to make sure they really earn it.”

City bossed the second half and Filipe Morais blew their best chance with a close-range miss. But Parkinson still thinks they can take that momentum into the second leg.

“It was a golden opportunity for Fil and he wasn’t able to take it. But you can’t fault him for his all-round play.

“We had to show courage to go and get on the ball and keep it better. I just felt in the first half we lost our way in possession when the goals went in.

“We’ve got two youngsters in the centre of midfield who’ve been outstanding for us and we just went away from linking the play.

“Every time we played a little bit of football we got into good situations and we did that so much better in the second period.

“We’re now going to be as positive as we possibly can going down to Millwall and try to make it a difficult night for them. I believe we’re capable of doing that.”