Peter Thorne will happily be put on the spot at Edgeley Park.

City's ten-goal top scorer is expected to take over penalty duties after Barry Conlon's miss against Dagenham.

It was Conlon's second spot-kick failure in five attempts this season - and proved hugely costly.

The Irishman also missed on the opening day against Macclesfield, although Guylain Ndumbu-Nsungu spared his blushes by sweeping home the rebound.

But there was no escape from the follow-up last week after Alex Rhodes was foiled by a last-ditch tackle.

City also fluffed a penalty against Chester in November when Nicky Law's poor effort was saved.

Thorne used to take spot-kicks for Cardiff and has been itching to have a go. McCall will not make a decision until after training but the striker is favourite for the job.

McCall said: "We haven't made up our minds yet. As I say, it's whoever is on the pitch at the time and feeling confident - but Barry has missed two now so somebody else will be eager to get on them.

"Baz had scored his last three but he just changed his technique. He's normally been coming up and dinking the ball down the middle but even from his approach you could tell where he was going to put it.

"It was a good save but, like Scott Loach at Macclesfield, it was the follow-up one that was better. The tackle from their lad on Alex was superb.

"On another day we could have won that game but we gave away two soft goals again and haven't helped ourselves. But it's gone now, we've talked about what went wrong and we're ready for Saturday."

McCall is not surprised to see Stockport slip into the final play-off berth.

He said: "They were a team I tipped as a dark horse at the start of the season. Everybody was looking at the bigger teams but I saw they have some good young players and have built up a decent squad.

"They're inconsistent at home, a bit like Rochdale, but the confidence should be high because of the run they are on.

"The pitch is difficult because Sale also play rugby there but it's the same for both sides. We'll just get on with it and hopefully put in a strong performance like the last away game at Notts County."

Eddie Johnson is likely to return in midfield after recovering from a virus. McCall is also hopeful that TJ Moncur will be okay after suffering a tight hamstring.

He said: "We've had to monitor that closely. I think he will be all right, although we've got Mark Bower ready to fill in if need be.

"Bowser hasn't had much football under his belt but he will be involved in the squad just to see how TJ goes. He's been training hard and knee-wise everything is fine but he just needs that match fitness."

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