JOHN RUSSELL revealed how State exams will leave him struggling to fill the Sligo Rovers bench against Waterford next week.
The Bit O’Red are down to the bare bones because of an injury crisis and the departure of Rein Smit due to personal issues.
That will be exacerbated in a few days’ time when Stefan Radosavljevic goes on international duty with the Faroe Islands.
And some of the academy players Russell has been relying on to plug gaps will be unavailable because of the Leaving and Junior Cert exams.
Russell said: “We’ve got kids on the bench and we have a guy doing his Junior Cert, Aiden Gabbidon, he’s been on the bench recently, and we’ve four doing their Leaving Cert.
“Next week they’re starting their exams which is going to impact us.
“They mightn’t be free for Friday’s game away to Waterford but our focus is on the next two first.”
The Bit O’Red are away to leaders Shelbourne tonight before hosting Drogheda, who are immediately below them, on Monday.
But Russell dismissed the idea of prioritising the game against their fellow strugglers.
He said: “It’s the same points for every game and you have to put your best foot forward.
“If we can play to our potential against anyone, we can get a win. That’s the way I’ll be approaching it on Friday.
“We can’t be thinking, ‘Oh we’ll rest players and focus on Monday’.
“Friday is a chance to get three points and we probably don’t have the squad to say, ‘Yeah, we’ll rest five or six’.”
Russell felt his side deserved a share of the spoils when the sides last met but conceded it would be tougher this time around.
He said: “They’re a team that don’t concede many goals and they’ve got a lot of attacking threat with Will Jarvis, Matty Smith and Seán Boyd chipping in with goals this year.
“They have steadily improved over the last three seasons under Damien Duff and his staff and we know we’re in for a real tough test on Friday.
“In the first game that we played them, I felt we didn’t deserve to lose.
“We conceded from a corner and we’d a goal disallowed. We went toe to toe with them.
“We know we’re down bodies but I still believe in the players we have that we can put it up to them.”