Scarborough Athletic boss Steve Kittrick: Rested and ready to take on Marine

The preparation wasn’t ideal for that session because both the A1 and the M62 were shut, so by the time we got going we’d missed about half-an-hour.

The lads worked hard though and that is something they’ve been doing for a while.

A testament to their effort is the fact that we were given the club of the month award for October.

We have had some frustrating results against Saturday’s opponents Marine in recent years.

They have a new manager in Neil Young and I know he’ll be wanting to beat us, as every club who visits our Flamingo land Stadium-base does.

It is important now that we keep picking up the results and keep chipping away.

We have to make our home ground a fortress.

That was one of the reasons we signed Jamie McGuire from Frickley, on an initial month’s loan, because he brings so much experience.

We need somebody to sit in there and get a hold of our midfield, leading the younger lads around the park.

That is what Jamie has done for years now.

We are looking at another player and he might be in by the weekend, but we have to see how things go.

It is important to freshen things up. Lots of clubs do it in January, but now is as good a time as any.

Once clubs go out of the FA Cup and the FA Trophy, they start to look at their budgets and the players that they have.

This is just the law of the jungle and it means that players become available.

As I’ve said before, we will be working hard to boost our squad and keep things fresh, but only if the lads we are bringing in add something to what we already have.