WITH a looming fixture pile-up Chelmsford City manager Glenn Pennyfather is looking to add at least two players to his threadbare squad.
The weather over the festive period means The Clarets are well behind several of their rivals on games played meaning they will have to play twice a week until the end of the season.
Pennyfather is concerned that his squad of just 16 outfield players won't be able to cope with the rigours of so many games, particularly if injuries and suspensions kick in.
"We've got to fit in about seven games this month and that's a tough ask for us," said the manager.
"To have two games a week will take its toll either through injuries or purely on the fact that physically they can't keep producing all the time.
"People train race horses to peak once in a while and we're asking players to peak once every 72 hours.
"I've got good options but I'd like to get in a couple more but it's just working within the budget and getting in players of the right quality – the players that come in must be good enough.
"Realistically we're going to need a couple more players to be competitive all the time because 11 players are never going to win it for us."
With Chelmsford still in the FA Trophy and the Essex Senior Cup the games are coming thick and fast over the next couple of months. A further source of frustration for Pennyfather is the tradition that City play their mid-week games on a Monday meaning the players have little recovery time from their Saturday excursions.
"I think we go Saturday and Monday for three weeks in a row and that's a tough call for anyone," he said.
"I fully respect that it's tradition for us to play on a Monday but in order to give us the best opportunity it would be good for that to change. For me it's common sense to allow us more time between games and give ourselves the chance.
"Tradition is a great thing but I think Sky knocked the 3pm Premiership kick-offs on the head, now you can kick-off any day at any time.
"One week we've got to go off to Truro on the Saturday, we'll get back at 2am in the morning and then we play Dorchester at home on the Monday evening."
Today City travel to Maidenhead off the back of a 1-0 win against old rivals Billericay Town on New Years Day courtesy of an 86th minute strike from Jamie Slabber.
"It's not going to be the greatest surface but we've got to go there and win – we haven't got a choice given the amount of games we are behind," he said.
"We know all about Maidenhead. It's a tough game they're a funny team they win 6-0 away and then lose 2-0 away and you get a mixed bag."
On the win at New Lodge he said: "I thought the first half was a bit of sparring and that we dominated the second.
"Chances fell to players that you'd expected to score. You'd have had your mortgage on Jamie Slabber to have scored one of his earlier chances and Donovan (Simmonds) was put through, while Max (Cornhill) had a couple of chances and one cleared off the line."
On the transfer front Pennyfather is hoping to tie up permanent deals for Colchester United loanees Tom Bender and Bradley Hamilton 'imminently'.
He said: "We've been trying to bring them both in. They're two young players that have massive futures in the game but they've got to make some noise somewhere now and hopefully that'll be with us."
