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Benjani, Darius Vassell and Michael Ball all played the first 45 minutes of the 2-1 win over Liverpool as part of their recoveries from injuries of varying lengths of time. It was a long-awaited comeback for Benjani in particular, the Zimbabwean having been out of action since injuring a thigh muscle early in pre-season, and his return was marked in the best way when he grabbed the decisive goal just before half time.
Of the trio Mark told us: "It's good news that Darius, Benjani and Michael all came through OK. By all accounts they all did very well, they're unscathed and we don't expect any adverse reactions."
So with Thursday's UEFA Cup tie against FC Twente coming over the horizon, does the Manager think that they are in contention?
"We'll see. It's important that they got some game-time under their belts, but they impressed and Benji scored into the bargain. They will come into the equation, we've got young strikers here and at times we have lacked a little bit of experience up front so it will be good to welcome them back."
Assessing the threat posed by Steve McClaren's FC Twente, currently two points off the lead of the Dutch Eredivisie, Mark adds: "We enjoyed the games in Europe, the early stages came very early in our overall preparations but we're in the group stages now, we have a guaranteed number of games and we are going to enjoy them. Thursday will be a good test, they are a decent team, well organised and it's going to be a good test."
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