Nothing in reserve for Iron

Last updated : 14 June 2012 By Luke Thornhill

The Iron regularly used their youth squad for reserve game commitments last season, even when first-team players returning from injury were said to be lacking in match fitness.

"More and more over the course of last season you would watch a reserve game and it was just two youth teams in action. Very rarely do teams field a side full of professionals," Knill told the club's official website.

"Sometimes last season we had a squad with injuries and had a reserve fixture to fulfil. So at that point you had no choice but to play the kids, and that's just wrong.

"That's not what you want, the kids play Saturday mornings and then again on the Tuesday. It is more beneficial for those younger players to be coached and work on improving rather than slogging to fulfil fixtures.

Instead of reserve games, the club will arrange friendlies against second strings of local opposition.

This means games will be against clubs like Doncaster, Hull or Grimsby rather than Gateshead or Hartlepool - also reducing travelling costs.

"We played Doncaster a couple of times in the last season here and we can definitely play the Sheffield clubs," added Knill.

"People phone us all the time asking for a game; so from that perspective I wouldn't think that there will be too many weeks where we will struggle."