I WOULD like to urge all of our fans to come out in force to watch our opening game of the season at home to Hyde on Saturday.

It would be great to get more than 1,000 for the first game at St George's Lane and even if people are only going to come to one match this season, I hope it is this one.

Hyde are a good attacking side and it should be an entertaining afternoon for the fans.

They have just signed former Macclesfield striker Matthew Tipton and, with him and our former player Gareth Seddon together, they will have a good strike-force.

We had the tribunal over Ryan Clarke's transfer from Alfreton Town yesterday and the panel decided that we had to pay £3,000 - I think that is a fair amount.

Originally, we offered £2,000 and they wanted £5,000 - which was way too much - so to have to pay £1,000 extra was fair. It is good to have got the tribunal out the way because it was hanging over us for a while.

Ryan has been outstanding in defence during pre-season and we can just concentrate on the football now. On the injury front, things are looking a little bit better now with defender Chris Smith and midfielder Nick Colley.

We are more positive that they will be ready in time for Saturday's game with Hyde.

Chris came off the bench against Forest and although he is still struggling a bit, we are optimistic he will be OK.

However, defender Shabir Khan and midfielder George Clegg are both major doubts to be fit, while Shaun Findlay is definitely out.

Injuries to five key players before the start of the season when you only have a squad of 18 makes things very difficult.

We had similar problems at the start of last season when Adam Webster, Mark Danks, Des Lyttle and Justin Thompson were all injured.

We just seem to be a little bit cursed with injuries at the moment, but it gives the lads who come in a good opportunity to prove themselves.

We have a lot of games in a short space of time early in the season, but I just hope we can get some key players back fit as quickly as possible.

It is crucial to get off to a good start to the season and that will depend on how well we handle the injuries we have for the first five or six games. We don't want to be playing catch-up right from the beginning.

Chris is our most experienced defender and the guys who are covering for him are a bit out of position.

So if Chris does miss out and Shabir is injured, we will be going into the season without a recognised centre-half.

It will be a good learning curve for the players who come in and if they do well, it will give them lots of confidence which will be good for the squad.

Hopefully it all turns out right and I can put out a strong side against Hyde.