Marc Bridge-Wilkinson will bite his lip and keep playing through the pain for City.

The midfield playmaker has made a huge impact at Valley Parade since his arrival from Stockport in February.

But it was feared Bridge-Wilkinson could be sidelined for up to a month with a knee cartilage injury after limping off at half-time against Bournemouth ten days ago.

He sat out the Blackpool game - the first he has missed - but made a shock return in the 2-0 win over Chesterfield and scored.

City boss Colin Todd said: "Marc saw the specialist, who couldn't see anything wrong, and the scans didn't reveal any further

problem.

"Sometimes you have to learn to play with a little bit of discomfort and the positive thing is that he can't do any more damage to it.

"The reason you send people for x-rays and scans is to show the extent of the injury but it didn't confirm anything - and the player was reassured that he couldn't make it worse by carrying on playing.

"Who knows what might happen somewhere along the line but having him available is a huge boost for everybody at the club. It gives the whole team a lift.

"He is a big player for us because he

contributes so much from midfield. He's got two goals already but just as importantly he creates opportunities for others as well."

Bridge-Wilkinson will be handled carefully ahead of the Friday night trip to Tranmere.

He trained normally yesterday but then planned to spend two days working with physio Steve Redmond before returning to the squad at the end of the week.

Fit-again duo Bobby Petta and Danny Cadamarteri should also be ready to come back as City look to build on their second home win.

Todd said: "We were all disappointed that we didn't pick up any points from the two Bank Holiday games but it's very early in the season and there is no point in people getting disillusioned.

"It's not as if we had been playing badly, the performances were there but we just hadn't got the results.

"But it was a tremendous response on Friday and I was very pleased with the way the supporters got right behind us.

"I was starting to think it would be one of those nights when we were missing chances again.

"Windass, Cooke and Claridge could all have scored but we stuck at it and got our reward in the end with what was a well-earned victory."