Dean and Hewitt set for Boro return

Neither have featured in pre-season to date, with Hewitt being away and Dean being hit by an ankle injury.

Opponents FC United, who are managed by former Bridlington Town attacker Tom Greaves, will provide Boro with another challenging examination as they ply their trade in the Conference North.

That game is followed by another interesting away trip on Tuesday evening when Boro head to Conference outfit Harrogate Town.

Kittrick said: “I know Tom (Greaves) very well, he’s a good bloke.

“He took over at FC United when they were in a bit of turmoil last season and he led them to mid-table, so he’s doing a very good job.

“He’ll come and do things right, he’ll want to beat me, like I want to beat him, but we’ll have to see how it goes.

“It is a case of trying to share the playing time out at the moment.

“Sam is back for Saturday and Luke may be available, so we’ll have a look how things are.

“You can put all this emphasis on making sure that every player has got minutes under their belt, then you reach the start of the league fixtures and your team hasn’t played together, we have to be mindful of that.

“I don’t want people reading too much into this, but we have to make sure that everyone has bonded together.

“Saturday will be a test and then we have an even bigger test on Tuesday night against Harrogate.”