I'm generally not in favour of games being postponed like this at League 1 level but last night showed just how paper thin our squad is, particularly in defence.
With Bolton out we have 4 defenders for 3 places (5 if including Tomlinson). Ryan Lowe obviously wanted to rest Galloway last night... In the first half, Gillesphey was injured and was pretty much set to be replaced by Galloway (the physio clearly signaled over to the bench from the Lyndhurst side for a substitution to be made). But Gillesphey soldiered. Then Wilson was knocked out and Galloway had to come on at half-time meaning that he got significantly more playing time than Ryan Lowe wanted him to get. Following his earlier injury, in the second half Gillesphey was clearly not moving freely at all. But he soldiered on. the net result of all of this is that we finished the night with, presumably, Scarr unscathed but probably tired from 4 games in 11 days, Galloway in even more need of the rest that he already needed before the game started, Gillesphey carrying an injury of who knows what magnitude and Wilson out of action for a bit with concussion. So, for Saturday we could quite easily be playing Scarr, Galloway in need of rest and Tomlinson, with absolutely zero cover on the bench. We might well also be missing Conor Grant and several other players are starting to look significantly fatigued at times. Such fatigue makes it much more likely that players will pick up muscle injuries.
Obviously I know that postponing the game on 9th October can do nothing to help the side on 2nd October (unless there is anyone around here with a TARDIS
) but the above does serve to illustrate just how important it is to have strength in depth in the squad so as to be able to give players a rest during busy periods of fixtures.