"We are still waiting on International Clearance for Damien Mozika, but that is not the end of my shopping for players.  We are hoping to have another player coming in this week but its kind of hit a stone wall at the moment, but we have worked it so that we have enough of the budget left that if we need to go and get somebody, then we can go and do it.  We will keep looking and if there are players out there that we think are better than what we have got, then we will go and get them.  You cant have enough competition for places, as I found out this morning when I named the team.

There were some disappointed faces, and when you have got eight or nine players that can all play up front and across the front four.  You know that they all aren't going to play at the same time, but never mind, its one of those things in football.  They have to live with it.

I'm happy with the squad, but obviously I'd like more.  We are missing Ben Futcher, he's not trained today but will hopefully do something tomorrow.  He gives us a little bit more depth at the back and that's the area that we are a bit short on, but we have some names that if we need to go to, then we can go and get them.

We will find out on Saturday if the players have bonded together and have jelled into a team.  It doesn't seem to have affected the pre-season games.  From day one when we came back into pre-season, it was football and understanding each other.  We've done some things in-between that have helped bond them and they do seem like a really well bonded group.  That's half the battle in getting them all to get along and believing that they can do well.  They all fight for each other.  We all know and we've all seen already that we have some talented footballers in the squad.

We are in good shape going into the first game but you never know until you get there.  I am far more positive this year than I was going into it last year.  Last year we already had some problems.such as there was the hangover from the play offs, but I felt that in pre-season last year absolutely nothing like pre-season this year.

Pre-season has been good, we've played some good football and we've played some really good games.  I am happy but, and there is always a but, we have seen plenty of teams do really well in pre-season and then have a bad start.  You don't know what is going to happen until they get out there and start to play.

Port Vale are a good side, we all know that.  They are one of the fancied teams this year and finished very strongly last season.  We had a really good game against them at the end of the season and I am expecting no different from them on Saturday.  They are big and strong and well organised, Micky Adam's teams always are.  He's added to the squad and I think he's made it better.  It's a big test for us against one of the teams that I think will be right up there.

The league is wide open this year, every team will think that they can make the play offs because it is so wide open.  There are one or two teams that are spending money such as Morecambe, they are adding to their squad.  Oxford seem to be signing a player every week, then there's Rotherham and Wycombe.  Its going to be a tough league, but no tougher than last year.  If my team plays to their ability and we can compete, and cause problems to the opposition then that's for us.  It's also good that we are not fancied this year, I prefer that.

It's a busy time all of a sudden with three games in seven days with Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday and then Oxford away.Its a busy week but a really good week.'

Watch the entire 26 minute interview on Shakers Player