United look set to be without striker Jamie Guy for the season opener at Barrow on Friday night. Guy limped off with a hamstring problem in last night's friendly against Portsmouth and boss Darren Patterson told Yellow World that he's already making plans to deal with Guy's absence on Friday:

"In my mindset now we are looking to play without him on Friday night now. I don't know the full extent yet but it doesn't look good so we focus on other things and move on. We get him fit as fast as we can and we play him when he's ready, but it's important that we don't lose focus and we stay in a positive frame of mind. Pre-season has gone very well we're in good spirits and just looking forward to the season ahead now."

Guy's injury took the shine off of an excellent United performance against a full strength Pompey side in a game that Darren thoroughly enjoyed:

"It was an excellent occasion and I can't thank Portsmouth enough. It was a good game for us and great financially for the club and we're very grateful to Harry Redknapp for bringing such a great squad. I thought their players were magnificent but we played very well at times ourselves, created a lot of chances as we have done all pre-season, so it was a good night."

"The goal was all youth team and it's terrific for Alex Fisher to score past David James. It's important to give these kids chances and to have a look at them. Nobody says they are the finished article or that they're ready yet, we don't put unnecessary pressure on them, but we let them mature in the right manner, especially physically. You could see that they can compete as well as play, and that's great to see. If Portsmouth had scored that goal everyone would have said 'great goal, great quality' but there were some very young lads involved in that goal and that was great to see."

Hear the whole interview and the whole season in Yellow World