Boothroyd Still Pondering His Best Back Four

Aidy Boothroyd has admitted that he is unsure which is his best back four partnership.

The club only has two recognised left backs, Stephen O'Halloran and Chris Hussey, neither of whom have featured much in Boothroyd's first team options.

Hussey has gone to on loan to Crewe for a few weeks and O'Halloran has not yet recovered from injury. Boothroyd has been experimenting with his back four during the last few games playing the versatile Martin Cranie at left back, but opted to drop him last Saturday in favour of Richard Wood.

Despite being short of a left back, Boothroyd has no plans to look for one in the January transfer window. Cranie is capable of playing in a variety of positions and Wood did quite well as an improvised left back against Burnely thereby adding to Boothroyd's options.

Richard Wood (pictured below) is a central defender, but Boothroyd was sufficiently impressed with his performance, saying to the CT: "I thought Woody was terrific on Saturday and did really well."

"Obviously Martin has played there and done really well for us and Stephen was brought in to play that position. He had 20 minutes against Kettering yesterday but it is still very early for him so we will just keep ploughing through and getting on with it and with a bit of luck we will find a winning combination in the back four."

"We are having to deal with the injuries and suspensions like everyone else and that has meant we have had to shift things about with Ben Turner being injured and James McPake coming back, so we will get on with it and whoever I think is right to play there will play there."

When questioned about playing O'Halloran when he is is fit again, Boothroyd said, "If he proves ready for it and shows me he can do it then absolutely. But if he doesn't then I won't."

"If I start thinking about what will happen in ten games from now then I will lose the plot. We will see where we are because a lot of things can happen between now and January but, to be perfectly honest, I don't think we need to buy anybody. I think we are all right and I think we have got enough when we have got everyone fit."

"We have got a good squad. It is a naive squad in many ways but it is a hungry squad and a hard working squad, and I think that if you have got that, and if we can turn ourselves into a consistent squad, then we don't need to go spending loads of money and splashing it all around because I don't think it is necessary."

With Richard Wood apparently taking over at left back, the question now arises as to where Martin Cranie will play. He played in the behind closed doors reserve game yesterday against Kettering and Boothroyd revealed where he played.

He said, "He played centre-back against Kettering and was absolutely outstanding. He sees himself as a centre back and after his performance yesterday he comes into contention, so I can see why he says that because he did very, very well."

Speaking about his thoughts of the 2-0 win over Kettering at Ryton, Boothroyd said, "We won 2-0 with Freddy and Carl Baker scoring the goals which will be good for them because they needed that."

"More players got 90 minutes under their belt and no one came out with any injuries, so it is important for the likes of David Bell, Freddy, Jordan Clarke and Roy O'Donovan, lads who are in and around the team, that they got their time in and there were some good performances from some of the younger players, including Conor Thomas and Cyrus Christie, who did very, very well and were probably our two best players, which is always pleasing."

Boothroyd Still Pondering His Best Back Four

Last updated : 24 November 2010 By Covsupport News Service/RD