Stanley boss James Beattie is keen to look at the options available to him in tonight’s Johnstone’s Paints Trophy match with Carlisle – but not to the detriment of his team’s chances of taking a step towards Wembley.

The Reds welcome the Cumbrians to the Store First Stadium with both sides hoping that a change of competition will bring about a first win of the season.

Beattie insists he’ll be taking the JPT seriously.

“It’s a big chance to get to Wembley,” he explained. “Lots of teams will make wholesale changes but we’ve got a number of injuries and some sickness too and with the size of squad we have we’ll have to rotate where we can.

“If we don’t change things a little the same lads will be asked to play Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday every week. In an ideal world with lots of players to choose from you’d select the lads that haven’t had an opportunity but the rules have been brought in to make sure you can’t do that and take the competition lightly.

“We certainly won’t be doing that and as I say it’s a realistic chance for a club like ours to make it to Wembley. Ultimately there’s silverware there to be won.”

The Reds came away from Gigg Lane empty handed at the weekend despite having the best of the first half against Bury but Carlisle’s fortunes were worse as they were hammered 5-0 at Cambridge, leading to manager Graham Kavanagh losing his job.

Beattie doesn’t think that will have a bearing on proceedings this evening.

“I’m sure Carlisle will be in the same position as us where they want to be competitive but want to try to give players game time so we’ve just got to focus on what we do,” he said.

“It’s always distressing when a manager loses his job but ultimately the buck stops with the manager. It’s the culture that we’re in now where clubs want instant success and it can be a very cut throat business. The business world is very harsh and very unforgiving and football is no different at this moment in time.”