Neil Warnock spoke to LUTV after the friendly win against Burton yesterday. Making their debuts were Lee Peltie and Rodolph Austin. Warnock talked about the match, search for “icing” players, and the complete lack of depth at the club. Bates tried to insist the club barely needed any cover for injury last spring; a glance at our squad numbers (19, including 2 Warnock wants to loan out) shows a squad that must be by far the thinnest-stretched in the league. Bates had better hope he’s right and the professional manager is wrong if he stays at the club, because the lack of depth is entirely his fault.

Workout

We’re still lacking a few goals but overall it was a good workout. The new lads got a bit of a game, I thought it was important for Rudolph(sic) and Lee to get most of the game, and I think they fitted in well.

Varney’s done ever so well. I think he’s really enjoying it. I think he enjoys the crowd, the atmosphere, and everything. There’s a lot of plusses I think. Norris did well tonight, the centre-halfs are fitting in well together, I was pleased with a number of players.

Thin, Bordering on Starving

You’d’ve thought Rudolph had been playing here all his life seeing him play wouldn’t you? He’ll be a good asset for us because he can play a few other positions as well.

We haven’t got much more than this. If you look at it – that was our squad tonight. We’re going to have to have a little bit of luck with injuries aren’t we? I think it’s a decent XI, but we’re going to have to rely on youngsters at times.

I wanted to have a look at Aidy [White] again at left-back for an hour. It’s twice I’ve seen him there now, so I’ll look at the situation over the next couple of weeks. But we will need Aidy in a few positions without a shadow of a doubt, because we’re short in quite a few positions to be sure.

[Can Byram push Peltier?] No not really, no. But he’ll be great to have around because I know Peltier can play centre-half and left-back and we are a little thin on the ground so we’ll need versatility. But I trust Sam, if I had to play him on Saturday or against Wolves I would do.

Recruitment

I spoke to Martin Cranie on the weekend, and I’ll speak to him again. I know the situation he is in, and I don’t blame him really.

We’ve got to move players on before we get players in. But I think you can see we need another striker, at least, and we have to fund that.

Shrewsbury

We’ll play our strongest team against Shrewsbury.

If it was a midweek game I’d play a weakened team, because I don’t want anything going wrong during the last week before the season.