Lawrie Sanchez is sweating on the fitness of three players ahead of tonight’s Johnstone’s Paint Trophy southern area semi-final against Brentford at Underhill.

Skipper Mark Hughes and on-loan Southampton defender Jack Saville face late fitness tests before the match against last season’s beaten finalists, as does leading scorer Izale McLeod, who had a trial with tonight’s opponents after being released by Charlton Athletic and before joining Barnet.

The manager will be looking for an improved performance following Saturday’s FA Cup second round exit as his side seek to set up a two-legged area final date against the winners of the other southern last-four clash between Southend United and Swindon Town.

Speaking after Saturday’s 3-1 defeat against Milton Keynes Dons, Sanchez said: “We’ve got more chance of winning the JPT than we have the FA Cup, put it that way, and there is a prize to be had there. We’ll have to play better than we did today.

“To be fair I know Brentford got beaten by Wrexham but we’ll have to do better than we did today because I don’t think we played as well as we can do. And even then we were in the game, so if we had played as well as we can do we’d have won this game today which is the disappointing aspect of it.”