Squad stretch test for County
STOCKPORT County manager Jim Gannon admits that his side are down to the barebones at the moment after a string of injuries and illnesses.
The Hatters have had a busy run of fixtures, with the amount of games in a short period of time taking its toll on his side.
‘We’ll keep tweaking the team and system too to get the best out of ourselves’
County were set to host Gainsborough Trinity as the Express went to print on Tuesday, before a home game against Bradford Park Avenue on Saturday, and Gannon hopes his squad won’t be as depleted for those matches as it has been in recent weeks.
“We’ve not got a lot of fit players. The 16 players we had in our squad against Nuneaton on Saturday were the only 16 players we had fit,” he said. “There was a bug going round that affected a few of the lads, but luckily that seems to only take a day or two to recover.
“We were missing the likes of James Hooper against Nuneaton which was a blow, especially as he’s only here for a few more games.
“Hopefully Scott Duxbury can recover and get the all clear soon, and Ryan Ellison is on his way back as well.
“There are emails flying in about circulars of players available and we’ll keep tweaking the team and system too to get the best out of ourselves.”
The 1-1 draw on Saturday came after goals from Stockport’s Josh Amis and Nuneaton’s Aaron Williams, and Gannon felt it showed a lot about how his side are currently performing.
“We have a couple of players who are not on the boil at the moment. They are brilliant one week and not consistent the next week, but we have to accept that at this level,” he said.
“Both teams had good phases in the game and had chances, but nobody really showed their ruthlessness to get the winning goals so in reflection I think it was a fair result.
“We started really well and got the goal, and Gary Stopforth had a great chance before that too. We created opportunities but couldn’t take them.
“I was disappointed with their goal and it would have been nice to get to half-time being 1-0 up as we could have imposed our shape on them defensively.
“We changed the tempo in the second half and got into a position where we could have won the game, but it wasn’t to be.”