CARL Macauley has said Witton Albion’s players will benefit from an extra game after arranging a friendly for Tuesday night.

His side were impressive for the first hour of a warm-up meeting with Marine on Friday before fading during the remainder of a 1-1 draw.

They will host Kidsgrove at Wincham Park tomorrow rather than train.

“We’re not where I would have liked us to be in physically,” Witton’s manager told the Guardian.

“To be fair we’ve had injuries to contend with, and of course that doesn’t help, but we need to be fitter than we are.

“We’re not able to play at the tempo that I’d like for 90 minutes and it might take another couple of weeks for us to reach that level.”

James Foley (ankle) and Tom Owens (foot) both sat out the contest in Crosby, while a virus restricted Liam Goulding to 45 minutes.

Despite a drop-off in the closing stages, during which Marine equalised through Craig Lindfield and hit the woodwork on two other occasions, Macauley was encouraged by what he saw.

“A lot of boxes were ticked,” he added.

“I wanted the lads to follow on from what we’d done in the previous games in terms of pressing high up the field and putting pressure on our opponents.

“We did that so well in the first-half, and we were strong and aggressive while defending too.

“We had control, and probably should have been further in front.

“I expected the intensity to be lower in the second-half because we’d given so much in the first, and that’s exactly how it unfolded.”

Witton head to Whitby on Saturday for the first game of a new Northern Premier League season.

Mickleover Sports then arrive in Northwich on Tuesday.

Before that Kidsgrove are Albion’s guests tomorrow, kick-off 7.45pm.