KIDDERMINSTER Harriers' blank day on Saturday certainly didn't do us any favours with a couple of our play-off rivals in particular taking full advantage to pile the pressure on us.

I suppose overall it was a so-so afternoon in terms of results but Shrewsbury and Scunthorpe both turned up the heat on us by winning.

Shrewsbury won 1-0 at home to Leyton Orient but it was an excellent result for Scunthorpe who came away from Luton with a 3-2 victory under their belts.

In terms of the last couple of play-off places it now means that it's going to take a massive effort for us to get up there.

But there's only five points separating us from seventh-placed Shrewsbury who have played three more matches than us.

That, of course, adds extra spice for when we take them on at Aggborough a week tonight.

Before that, though, we've got another couple of tough matches coming up starting tonight with a home clash against Macclesfield and then on Saturday we make the trip to table-topping Plymouth.

At the moment our injury list seems to be growing by the day which is begging the question about whether we'll be bringing in anybody on loan.

Obviously, in an ideal world we'd like to bring in someone who is going to really make a massive difference, but it's a difficult time of the season for that.

We don't have an awful lot of money available so at the moment we are going to have a look at what we have got and see how far we can get with them. Losing Mark Blake was a major blow and certainly we could have done without the knee injury Danny Williams picked up against Swansea City last week.

But, fingers crossed, I'm hoping Danny will be fit for our visit to Plymouth on Saturday.

Comment has been made, meanwhile, on my decision to leave Ian Clarkson out of the starting line-up against Swansea.

I just thought that in the previous couple of games he had looked a little bit tired and it was the first time we had played against a team playing with three centre halves against our 4-3-3 system.

Because of that I felt we maybe needed a little bit more pace in the full-back areas and Adie Smith certainly gives us that.

As it happened, of course, Clarkson came on pretty early anyway because of Williams' injury. But that's all in the past now and we've got to fully focus on tonight's match with Macclesfield.

We need to get back on track after two draws and a defeat and rekindle our play-off push.

I have to say I don't think we are going to finish outside the top of half the table.Victory tonight would certainly help that.