WE HAVE depleted squad for the game against Barnet this weekend but that will give others a chance to impress and it’s time for them to stand up and be counted.

Daniel Bentley, for example, has done really well in goal since getting his chance and, with a few more first team games under his belt, I’m sure he will provide real competition for Paul Smith.

There will now be different players given an opportunity who will be wanting to do well and you’ll often find that in situations like this, when your backs are against the wall, everyone digs in that little bit more.

We will certainly need to do that against Barnet because if we don’t then we will be in trouble.

But if we play the way we know we can then we can definitely take all three points.

Unfortunately, I won’t be taking part due to my knee injury and I’m targeting the game at Rotherham a week on Saturday as one I may be fit for.

It’s very frustrating and meant I had to sit and watch the Burton game on Tuesday from the stands.

The tackle which resulted in John Spicer’s red card would have been a great challenge as little as three years ago.

But nowadays you just can’t make those types of tackles.

The team dug in brilliantly after he was sent off and deserved at least a point so to concede a superb free-kick right at the end was really hard to take.

However, there were still plenty of positives out there and it was great to see Freddy Eastwood play the full 90 minutes because that will do wonders for his fitness.

Unfortunately, I also had to miss the trip to Plymouth where the new members of our squad had to sing.

But Michael Timlin was on hand to review everyone’s performances in true Simon Cowell-type fashion!

Ted Smith: Our young goalkeeper went first to get it over and done with it and full credit to him for doing it. He sang Wonderwall by Oasis and was pretty good.

Anthony Straker: He was full of rhythm and did well. He really got in to it all and we actually had to tell him to sit down in the end!

Ryan Cresswell: Cressy really surprised me. I was expecting an aggressive rock tune and he came out with a melody sung in a soft voice. Being harsh, he was probably the worst one!

Kevan Hurst Kev’s a confident lad and he started off well before forgetting some of the words. But he’d done enough before then and doing the song wasn’t a problem for him.

John Spicer Spice was very nervous but he went for a Beatles tune which got everyone involved. He didn’t have the best voice but he definitely chose the best song.

Britt Assombalonga Britt was the best of them all. He was quite nervous but, to be fair, he was very good and I would say he could actually go on the X Factor. I’m not even joking either!