Town boss Paul Cook says he's asking the members of the large squad he inherited who are currently out of the side to show a little patience. He says they will eventually get their chance, citing striker Kayden Jackson as an example.
Cook says everyone came through the 1-1 draw with Lincoln with picking up any knocks.
"Perfectly well, really good game, I enjoyed Tuesday night’s game,” Cook reflected. "It was a really good clash of two teams who probably cancelled each other out in the end and that can happen in a football match.”
Cook made three changes for the game against the Imps and believes managing the situation with players not in the team is an important aspect of management.
"Your relationship with your players is huge, it’s absolutely paramount to your success because the most important people are the ones who aren’t playing,” he said.
"They’re probably the most unhappy at the club and you’ve got to give them hope and belief that they’re going to play a part in the future.
"One of my small criticisms of where we are today is the number of players we’ve amassed. Every football club is different but we have amassed a lot of players and I think when you amass a lot of players, it’s really difficult to keep everyone happy.
"But everyone in the squad’s bought into myself and Gary [Roberts] and the rest of the coaching staff since I’ve come in.
"They all understand and I try and explain to them that I can’t keep everyone happy today, but hopefully by tomorrow or the next week [I’ll be able to do that].
"If you look at Kayden Jackson for example as a perfect case point, he came on for two minutes the other night, but the reality over the next week is that we’re going to be seeing a lot more of Kayden Jackson, so I think we’re just asking the players for a little bit of patience.”
Jackson returned to action as a sub in the games against Gillingham and Lincoln having returned to the fold under Cook after his exile to the U23s under former boss Paul Lambert.
Asked what he likes about Jackson, who Cook appears to hint may come in and start at Fleetwood on Tuesday with James Norwood unavailable due to his court case, the new manager said he wouldn’t be drawn into saying too much about any one member of his squad.
"I like all the players, I very, very rarely individualise,” he said. "My job is to put them into a collective now. I believe that the best teams are made up of all functioning components.
"We need defenders who can defend, we need full-backs who can attack, we need midfielders who handle the ball and can pass forward and break up play.
"We need flair players being very productive in what they do, we need strikers to score goals. I haven’t got much of a problem here by the way lads, have I?”
Cook has already said since joining Town that he’s not one for chopping and changing his side. Does he believe the modern footballer can play Saturday-Tuesday, Saturday-Tuesday?
"I think if we keep giving the excuse, they’ll find a cop-out won’t they?” he said. "What we do historically is look back to teams who used to play [every game] and I think what we’ve all got to accept is that we’re in an extraordinary year, aren’t we?
"Someone said the other day that at this time last year, you probably had six fixtures left. This time now we’re looking at 14.
"I think the most important thing is that we respect the year we’ve just had and going forward I’m hopeful that the fixture congestion and the fixture demands on players becomes a little bit less next year.
"We all need football, we all need supporters back in, so I don’t think we need to debate that.”