Tom Lowery didn’t start against Lincoln City because of the demands of playing two games in such a short space of time. The midfielder made his first league start of the campaign in the 2-1 win over Doncaster Rovers at the weekend and after only recently returning to full fitness from a hernia injury, the boss didn’t want to over expose him to another 90 plus minutes against the Imps.

The Holmes Chapel youngster replaced Luke Murphy ten minutes into the second half and the boss says he will continue to be cautious with Lowery, as he makes those steps back from long-term injury.

Artell told the club’s official website: “We play a bit more football with Tom in there. I would say he gives us some more legs but they are about 8 inches long! He does get around the pitch a bit more and gets on the ball and we know the qualities he has.

“He has only really recently come back from almost seven months out, so it would be a lot to ask of him to play two games a week. We will continue to assess him to make sure he doesn’t suffer any sort of set-back. He is getting fitter all the time and feels fine but we don’t want to lose him again for any length of time.”