Cowley: It’s like trying to manage with one hand tied behind your back

LACK OF BALANCE THROUGH INJURIES IS HURTING US SAYS DANNY

players in the 1-1 draw at Wigan Athletic on Saturday – Fraizer Campbell, Alex Pritchard, Jaden Brown and Lewis O’Brien.

The current injury crisis has left Cowley with limited options to choose from as his side prepare to host Nottingham Forest on Saturday, and the first-team squad has recently featured several of the club’s academy youngsters.

A few of them have taken their chances well, with Demeaco Duhaney and Rarmani EdmondsGreen both impressing at right-back against Leeds and Charlton respectively and midfielder Matty Daly coming off the bench to score a last-minute winner against Charlton.

Asked whether he was tempted to start Daly in the draw against Wigan, Cowley said: “They (younger players) can definitely give us the energy and the enthusiasm, there’s no doubt about that.

“At Wigan in a relegation battle is tough for young players and it’s completely different coming off the bench to starting a game.

“We’ve seen that young players have done remarkably well, unbelievably well, probably shocked us all, so you should never say never in football.

“But we tried to go with a team we felt would have the experience in it to make us competitive and at the moment it’s really tough, we haven’t got any balance.

“We’ve got 11 right-footers on the pitch and we’re struggling to switch the play and get any real advantage because we’re then having to come back inside.

“We haven’t quite had the right balance in midfield, we’d like that link, that Alex Pritchard type, but he’s obviously not available to us. And we like to use Karlan Grant coming in from the left. All of these are ideals for us and none of these are ideals we can get to.

“It’s incredibly frustrating, I’ll be honest. You feel like you’re trying to manage with your hands tied behind your back. It’s tough, but this is what it is, these are the circumstances in front of us, and what we have to do is try to work through it. We’ve accumulated four points [from our last two games] somehow, which is an unbelievable outcome considering everything that’s been against us.”

We’ve seen that young players

have done remarkably well, unbelievably well