Manager Dean Saunders was not too worried that his side suffered their first defeat in the pre-season schedule last night against Rotherham United.
Although the game ended in a 2-1 reverse for Saunders, he remained positive about the performance.
‘There were things we did that were excellent, so I’m not going to let the result interfere with our pre-season,’ he said
‘We scored a really good goal and played some great football.
‘We had some chances, first half especially, I’m mean tap in’s in the six yard box - but it was a good game.
‘It was the first full 90 minutes for some of them, obviously we’re still short of players and it probably cost us.
‘It wasn’t tiredness, I thought we finished the game well, but we’ve got an 18 year old in goals, we haven’t got another fit goalkeeper and we haven’t got a fit centre back at the club at the minute.
‘Jimmy O’Connor went off with a thigh strain so we had to play Paul Keegan at right back and Liam Wakefield, who’s 18, at centre back, James Husband at left back who is also 18 and the goalkeeper is 18. They were up against two big strong men that they had playing upfront so they got out muscled.
‘There was no difference from the Grimsby game really, we played well at Grimsby and we played really well today – but I’ve got five or six players to get in yet.
‘We conceded a goal from a goal kick because we haven’t got an experienced centre half on the pitch, Tommy has had to play there but I would rather him playing left back, Jimmy went off then so Paul Keegan had to play right back and I thought he did really well.
Dean admits the squad is still short of where he believes it needs to be at and explained he is playing a waiting game before he can add to it.
‘I’m still a bit unsure who is going to leave us.
‘I’m sitting waiting to see if the phone rings, if it does I’m going to need another player. It’s still a bit difficult to sort the squad out and get a clear picture [of where we are] in front of us.
‘George is probably on the verge of leaving us, but until he leaves I always keep the hope that he might end up staying, but if he doesn’t I can get a replacement in.
‘We probably need three centre backs if George leaves, I could have had a couple in on trial today but, obviously you care about whether you win or not, I wasn’t going to let the result affect us because we had half a team out there really.
‘James Coppinger felt his calf before the game so I didn’t want to risk him. Jimmy felt his thigh and Kyle Bennett had his calf trod on, so at the minute we haven’t got a goalkeeper, right back or a centre back!’