Stepping Up To The Plate - Bond after squad players to shine

Kevin Bond says tomorrow's match at Swindon will give some of his fringe players a perfect chance to claim a regular spot in his first team plans.

Here is what Kevin had to say in the build up to the match:

"It is frustrating and I keep telling myself it's part and parcel of the job. But it does stretch our resource and planning to the limit. We had three players injured last week who'll be out for a while. And in training we still managed to lose two more despite doing a non-contact session so we'll have to see where we are on Saturday.

"It really is taking it to the limit for us, but that's the way it is and it's going to be difficult. Hopefully one or two will be fit for Saturday and we'll have to use who we have got and everybody who is fit will be involved. I want to be positive and hope we can get a side together and substitutes bench that can do ourselves justice.

"They've had some good results and played well at Hartlepool last week and probably deserved to win. I saw them against Yeovil and didn't deserve to get beaten on the balance on play. They are a strong outfit and have plenty of attacking options. They are a useful side and it'll be a hard game for us.

"We've done ok in our away matches to date and we haven't really put our noses in front when we've had the lion's share of play. Whatever we put out on Saturday we would hope and I would expect to be strong enough to compete whoever we're up against.

"We won't go into the game with any negative thoughts or use the fact we have a few injuries as an excuse for a poor result. I am comfortable playing any one of our squad players and the situation is that I will be doing that. Some will be getting an opportunity to come in and impress and it's up to the players to step up to the plate and take that opportunity.