Hucknall Town boss Andy Ingle uses blank weekend to take stock and eye up new players

A good first three months of the season has the Yellow sitting pretty in fourth place in the UCL Division One and Ingle now plans to bolster his squad to increase competition for places.

Scheduled opponents Blackstones are in League Cup action and Ingle said: “From a football point of view I would rather be playing rather than have a weekend off.

“But, from the players' point of view the last six weeks have been quite hard for them so they could probably do with a bit of a rest if I am honest.

“But we will train this week and twice next week before the Harrowby game and tighten things up a bit.

“One or two lads have been carrying little knocks and we have done our substitutions according to their needs. But sometimes players just need a bit of a rest in general.”

Ingle was content with fourth place but believes his side could be higher.

“Realistically I think we are happy with where we are,” he said.

“But if we look back at some of the results where we have slipped up and dropped points we could have done better. But we have made a bit of a decent surge again and I am happy with that.”

On his squad, he added: “With no game this is a good chance to take stock of where we are and also a chance to look at the squad again and see if we need any more bodies.

“We would like to freshen it up to keep everyone on their toes.

“We are looking at a couple of positions which will create some good competition for places.

“It may be this side of Christmas, but we won't rush it into anything as you need to watch people. “We are being very selective who we want as, if they're not going to fit the group and how we want to play, then we won't go after them.

“Usually around Christmas time it is surprising how many people start to move around. Things change for a lot of clubs Christmas time traditionally.

“But we are stable. We set our stall out early and we won't be looking to move anyone on. It will more likely just be players coming in.

“We also have players within the squad that have not gained the minutes we would have wanted them to as yet. Our new signing Kai Wilson has only played a bit part so far. We're looking to get him more involved now.”

Hucknall's next game is at Harrowby United, who are 17th, on Saturday, 5th November.

“Harrowby have had one or two decent results of late. They hit a bit of a slump then they picked up,” said Ingle.

“Looking at some of the results in our division recently, we know anyone can do anything.

“We have said this all along and nothing has changed. If anything, some of the results have been even more surprising.”