John Coleman is still playing a waiting game on a number of injured players ahead of Saturday’s home game with Oxford United.

Tom Davies has missed the last two games with a knee problem and Dean Winnard was ruled out in midweek with a back problem, while skipper Terry Gornell has only been fit enough for the bench for the last two fixtures.

The manager has mixed news on the progress they are making.

“Tom’s been for another scan this week and he thinks that he’ll be resuming training within a week so that sounds like good news,” he said. “Dean is  just a case of wait and see.

“Terry’s keen as mustard anyway but he’s wise enough to know that he’s not right but he could play on it and he’s prepared to play on it but the longer he doesn’t play the more he will heal. He wants what’s best for the team and can see how well Billy (Kee) is playing at the moment.”

Teenage academy product Liam Goulding was the only defensive option on the bench for Tuesday’s win over Yeovil but the manager will have no problem picking him if required.

“If Liam had been needed to come onto the pitch on Tuesday I would’ve had no hesitation in putting him on. He’s a good player and we have good players here. There are young players out on loan not because they haven’t got a future here but because they need experience in men’s football. That’s the idea of putting them out on loan.”

The emergency loan window remains open and could be an option to add to the squad if defensive numbers stay low but for now Coley is content.

“I’m happy with the options I have at the moment but things change very quickly in football so you have to adapt accordingly so we’ll see what happens and where we go with that in the next couple of weeks,” he concluded.