Reflecting at his press conference on what has been an incredibly unusual set of circumstances, manager Chris Beech insisted that the enforced lay-off must not be used as an excuse as we (hopefully) now head into a regular run of games.
"There’s nothing we can do about it any of it, that’s for sure,” he told us. “It was great to play on Tuesday, because we have been in this strange period that everybody knows about.
“Like anything in life you have to move on from that period. We can talk about it at the end of the season, I don’t think it’s right to keep reflecting on it right now.
“It’s simply time to concentrate on your next opponent and then look at the opportunity we have in the 22 games left, and we have to attack each opponent individually in that.
“It’s disappointing to lose a game, it always is, but it’s a strange period that we’ve hopefully surpassed completely. That’s history now and we have to make sure we’re ready for Salford who are a very, very good team.”
“We won’t blame the time off for the defeat but in reality it’s fact,” added. “Whether you haven’t been running on your own personal fitness kicks for 45 days, or whether you’ve not done something for so long, of course there’s a difference to it, and of course once you’ve done it, you get into it again.
“Whatever you’re doing, any fad diets or whatever you’re up to – there’s always a breaking-in period. But we’ve played that now, well done to Harrogate, but that was last week’s news.”
So with players gradually making their way back to top gear, we wondered if rotating starting elevens could be an option going forward.
“Not really,” he commented. “We do now have options to be able to do that, and the answers will be dependent on performances and opponents we’re playing against.
“Those answers come to me when you go on that journey. Because our team’s developed from a plan from the summer, and some players are playing in different positions to where they were originally recruited for in terms of that initial plan.
“What the capability of a good working environment is, is seeing what makes a difference at the time rather than being so specific and recruiting a player that we can’t afford to do, and that guarantees you 25 goals in League Two.
“So we have to find the answer in different ways and we’ll continue to do that. But the beauty of what we’ve done in January is, if there is discrepancy in the future, if there is virus rearing its head again, if there is major injury and suspension that will happen probably in 22 fixtures to be played Saturday-Tuesday, we have the capabilities of what you would class as not being weaker.”
