PROTECT Ian Bennett!

That's the message  Lee Clark has sent out to his Town side for tomorrow's League I clash with Rochdale at Spotland.

Only midfielders Anton Robinson, Damien Johnson and keeper Alex Smithies are unavailable through injury and Clark has strict instructions for those who take the field looking for a first three-point haul of the campaign to follow the Carling Cup victory against Port Vale.

"Too many shots are going in from the opposition and my keeper is having to make too many saves," said Clark.

"Good as he is, we don't want him having to do that and it's not necessary, so we've talked about it and done some work on the training ground in the last couple of days and we have got to get among them.

"It's important we win the ball back quickly when we haven't got it, because we are a fantastic team with the ball.

"I've told the lads they look like they are enjoying themselves when they have the ball, so we have to get it back quickly, stop the other side having goalscoring opportunities and impose our own game on them.

"I felt that was really poor against Bury and improved against Port Vale, but it's still not where I want it to be and I want to see further improvement."