WE took a strong side to take on West Ham United in a behind closed doors friendly yesterday.

And the game also enabled us to have a chat about Elliot Lee’s future.

It’s really unfortunate for everyone concerned that Elliot has injured his hamstring and it’s actually more serious that we first feared.

He’s out for at least two months, maybe three and with that in mind the loan deal is now dead in the water I’m afraid.

It’s something that we could look to rekindle again later on in the season and we’ve been told that’s certainly a possibility.

We could well look to bring in another striker on loan now but I very much doubt clubs will let anyone out just before the first round of the FA Cup.

We’re always looking at loan players and who is available and I’m sure we will be doing that again next week.

Before then we take on Chester in the FA Cup ourselves and it’s going to be another very difficult game.

We have good memories from the competition last season after beating Millwall and then getting to play Hull City.

Something similar would be great this season but all we’re thinking about at the moment is making sure we beat Chester.

GREAT TO SEE OUR STRIKERS SCORING

IT WAS great to see the three strikers we sent out on loan – Lee Barnard, Jason Williams and Ellis Brown – all scoring on their debuts.

Jason is still training with us and he came back in with a huge smile on his face after scoring in Chelmsford’s win against Basingstoke, who I think are top of the league.

Ellis Brown also scored for Witham Town and I went to watch him and our left-back Kane Farrell playing again on Tuesday night against Kingstonian.

We’ve also allowed Lee Barnard go to Stevenage and I was delighted to see him get on the score-sheet at Tranmere Rovers.

Hopefully he will be coming back to us as a far more confident striker.

THANK YOU PAPA JOHN'S

IT was very enjoyable to get out to Papa John’s Pizza in the week.

We’re very grateful for the support and backing they give us because as part of their recovery after games the players all have pizza to get some carbohydrate back in to their bodies.

It was good to go along there to thank them and it was great fun to have a go at making a few pizzas as well.

Jack Payne and Will Atkinson came along too and there were certainly much better at making the pizzas than I was!

DAVID WORRALL SUFFERS SLIGHT GROIN INJURY

DAVID Worrall has a slight groin injury at the moment but I think he should be fine to play against Chester on Saturday.

We decided it was best if he didn’t play against West Ham yesterday but that was the only change we made from the side that lined up against Mansfield Town.

Kevan Hurst came in for him and it was good for him to get a game.

We also made nine changes in the second half and it was a very pleasing and productive afternoon.

I THINK TWITTER IS OUT OF CONTROL

FOOTBALLERS using Twitter has been a big talking point this week with Rio Ferdinand getting in trouble for something he decided to put online.

We don’t stop our players using it but they certainly know the responsibilities they have while using it and the duties they have to the football club and to their team-mates.

At the start of the season, we had representatives come down from the PFA, the FA and the Football League and the use and abuse of Twitter was something they all spoke about.

In my opinion, it’s dangerous. I think Twitter is now out of control and people have to be very careful what they write