Blyth Spartans manager Lee Clark has explained the situation surrounding his squad selection after five players missed the trip to Kettering on Saturday.
Ursene Mouanda, Lewis Horner, Scott Fenwick, Adam Wrightson and Nathan Harker were all absent from the match day squad.
Clark explained: “Ursene Mouanda and Lewis Horner were available but weren’t selected as I can only name a squad of 16.
“Injuries, Scott Fenwick is long term. Adam Wrightson, we’re hoping to have him back for the game against Alfreton in the FA Trophy after having a slight hamstring tightness.
“Nathan Harker, we’re still assessing for Tuesday. He had to stop training on Thursday evening for a shoulder problem, so he was unavailable yesterday.”
Clark also hinted at seeing more of new signing Corey McKeown. The 17-year-old signed for the club on Thursday having been with the club since pre-season.
“He has been training with us since the start of the season all throughout pre-season and onwards.
“I’ve been very impressed with him. He doesn’t look out of place with the first team players.
“We wanted to allow him to have his FA Cup youth run with Morpeth Town. Morpeth have been brilliant with how they have handled that with us.
“Unfortunately they got knocked out by Scunthorpe the other night. Corey played a huge part. It was a real positive performance from him.
“We feel we can help him develop with us. I would have had no worries about playing him yesterday because he has shown me many times in training that he can handle it.
“He is one that we can hopefully, with ourselves and the reserves, develop and we hope he can give us further opportunities to pick him.”