Tough task for struggling Shakers

And no-one knows that better than under-fire boss Graham Barrow.

His side haven't won on their travels since the end of November when they defeated Swansea City 3-1 at the Vetch Field.

The season-defining defeat at Northampton in the FA Cup followed a week later, and since then the Shakers have picked up only one victory in 16 games.

That came four weeks ago when the Cobblers visited Gigg Lane.

Without a lucrative cup run to swell the coffers, the Shakers were plunged into their well-publicised financial crisis in December, a situation that has seen two of the team's top performers, leading scorer David Nugent and central defender Danny Swailes, move to pastures new.

To make matters worse, a series of injuries to the likes of midfielders Terry Dunfield and Dwayne Mattis, striker Chris Porter, defenders Matty Barrass, Paul Scott, and Colin Woodthorpe as well as goalkeeper Glyn Garner, has taken its toll on an already thin squad, forcing Barrow to bolster his options with loan players.

So it was Sod's Law that the one loanee who really looked like making a big impression on the side, striker Andy Keogh from Leeds, moved to Scunthorpe before the end of his time at the club.

Six of the team that defeated Swansea were missing from Tuesday night's debacle at Rushden and Diamonds, and it showed.

Barrow and assistant Kelham O'Hanlon, have a real job on their hands to keep morale high after the last two defeats, 3-0 on Tuesday night and a 2-0 home reverse at the hands of Mansfield on Saturday.

With current loan players Bas Savage, a striker from Reading, and Blackburn midfielder Gary Harkins struggling to come to terms with the cut and thrust of League Two football, it may be that the manager has a rethink about the wisdom of utilising too many loan players in the team at one time.

Though it begs the question what else is he supposed to do?

If he is unable to bring in permanent players, the only other alternative is to throw in untried youngsters which would be catastrophic, not just to the team, but to the development of the players themselves.

It's a quandary that would test the abilities of most managers but Barrow is refusing to buckle under the strain.

"I knew the financial situation in the summer and we probably surprised ourselves at the start of the season with some of our performances," he said.

"Dwayne Mattis and Brian Barry-Murphy fitted in well, David Nugent came back on fire and Chris Porter had come on, we looked a half decent side.

"Then we go out of the cup and all hell lets loose.

"The situation is, I work for people, I put my argument to them, those people make decisions and I have to abide by them and get on with managing the club.

"But all managers get stick, Paul Jewell was getting it at Wigan a few weeks ago when they were second in the Championship table.

"I can understand the criticism at the moment but some of the logic seems to go out of the window.

"Through one reason or another we have lost a lot of our big players, it's understandable results will suffer.

"But I'm a proud person, I can't stand the team playing poorly and I am up at four in the morning thinking what to do about it.

"Success for me isn't third from bottom of the league, but I wasn't being clever two months ago when I pointed out what happened when York City fell out of the league last year.

"We've got to re-group, we were saying a few weeks ago that the players haven't been affected by the club's problems, but now it seems some of them have."

Barrow will be forced to stand by the squad that went down to Rushden for Saturday's game against one of the division's surprise packages.

"Southend have a bit of quality about them throughout the team," he added.

"It's always a good atmosphere down there and their surface is always decent.

"But it's not the Nou Camp, we are still playing a side in our own division and our players have to apply themselves the right way.

"We've got to go down there with the right attitude."