WARRINGTON Town will continue to rotate their squad in the two remaining games over the festive period, manager Paul Carden says.

Yellows travel to Matlock Town today before welcoming Marine to Cantilever Park on New Year’s Day, kick off 3pm for both games.

After a 3-1 home loss to Coalville Town on Saturday, Carden made three changes to his side for the 2-1 Boxing Day win at Witton Albion and hinted more would be on the way over the weekend.

The Town boss said they had to “strike a balance” between giving players an opportunity and putting out the best team to secure results.

“The players are feeling it, but we’ll train on Thursday and see how we are for the weekend,” he said.

“I said before this run that we’d use the squad over Christmas.

“You want to pick your best team all the time, but there comes a time where you have to pull lads out to maintain their best.

“You also have to give other lads around the fringes of the team a chance to show their best.

“We have to strike that balance. We have to dig in and we did at Witton.

“It was a morale-booster as the last two results in the league before that weren’t good enough.”

The defeat to Coalville had seen them in danger of falling out of the Evo-Stik Premier Division play-off places, but Yellows responded with a dramatic win over their neighbours.

Tony Gray, one of three players dropped to the bench at Wincham Park after starting against Coalville, came on to score twice and turn the game in his side’s favour.

However, Carden says his players’ energy levels will be further hit by the quality of Witton’s pitch, which he described as “sapping.”

“The pitch was grassy but it was difficult. It had no life in it and it was sapping for the lads,” he said.

“They’ll know about the Witton game. They’ll feel it because of how heavy the pitch was and how much they put into the second half.”

Yellows remain fourth in the table, with games in hand on Workington and Grantham Town either side of them.

They have played exactly half of their league games as they try to stay in touch with the likes of Shaw Lane and leaders Altrincham.

However, Carden says he is not paying attention to what other teams are doing.

“Shaw Lane and Grantham had their game called off on Boxing Day, so that obviously helps us,” he said.

“I haven’t been looking at results in our league. We can only look at ourselves and the game we have in front of us.

“Hopefully, we can get enough points on the board between now and the end of the season to see us get in a position to achieve something.”