Fresh from his final training session of the week, pne.com sat down with the manager Paul Simpson to look ahead to the weekend's big friendly clash against Blackburn.

Paul, will you be using this game against Blackburn to test your expected starting eleven and tactics?
It's another ninety minutes for players to be getting but we are making sure that we are not taking chances on anybody. We've got a few players who have got little niggles, Sean St. Ledger, Matty Hill and Patrick Agyemang, so there's no point taking any chances against Blackburn. Saturday is a good run-out, a good game to look forward to but the most important thing for me is that one against Norwich City and we want to give ourselves every chance that they are going to be fit and I will be taking no chances and hopefully we will get through the game without any setbacks.

Ideally would you have liked to use this game to test your starting eleven?
It would have been ideal but this opens the door for other people to come in now and have a chance to show me what they can do. If they come in tomorrow and have a really good game then it's up to them to stay in there. It's not ideal, but that's life, last year we lost Youl Mawene in our last pre-season game and we are hoping that we can all get through the 90 minutes with no problems and we look forward to Monday morning where the real preparation starts for the season.

What are the injury niggles?
Patrick Agyemang has got a slight strain to his hip-flexor which is something which he had last year, it was feeling a bit tight. Matty Hill has got a pain in his heel when he is putting his foot down and making contact with the floor and that's affecting that. Sean St. Ledger picked up a dead leg in training on Thursday which is improving all the time, he'll have a training session on Saturday morning to decide whether or not he is fit enough to take part. If there is any doubt at all we will not be risking him because we are very fortunate that we have got the likes of Liam Chilvers waiting to come into the side, we've got Chris Sedgwick who wants to play and we've got Brett Ormerod who has done well over pre-season, so we have got good options who can come in if needed.

Pat's had this injury in the past so the plus-point is that we know how to treat it.
It will settle down in a couple of days, there's no point rushing it with Pat and pushing and pushing. With him being the sort of fast twitch type of player who goes off these really ballistic movements, anything like that can suddenly just snap all together, so we aren't taking any chances at all.

We've still got a strong squad out there, there are no problems about that, we know that it is going to be a really tough test. My main priority through pre-season is that we have got as big a squad as possible for that first game of the season.

You've not mentioned Karl Hawley, does that mean he's an option for Blackburn?
Karl's available again, he's trained and done some running this week. He saw the specialist on Thursday and he just said carry on and to keep going as he is, so he'll be involved in the squad and hopefully at some point he will get a part to play in the game.

You've managed to see Brett, Patrick and Neil in various partnerships over the past twelve months, now that you've brought Karl in that gives you another option.
I have an idea of what I am going to be starting with but I think to have any chance of being successful you need to have four, maybe even five good strikers at the Club. We've got four good ones at the moment, it's public knowledge that I am trying to bring another one in, I don't think that's going to happen before the start of the season but we will keep working away, we will keep looking to see if we can try and bring somebody in. The four we've got will give us good options, Patrick with his power and pace running in behind and causing problems there. Mells is a natural goalscorer. Karl has got good ability to hold the ball up and he's a goalscorer. Brett's a goalscorer and he's a worker and he chases and influences other people to work alongside him. They're all different options for us but good options for me to have.

You've spoken about your frustrations in the transfer market but you're also keen to remind people that we've got until the end of August to make any permanent moves.
Ideally we would like them in for the start of the season but we have got to keep plugging away and I'm a big believer that there is no point stamping your feet and spitting dummies out when things don't happen for you. I actually think the transfer market is going a bit crazy at the moment and unfortunately we are not in a position to go and compete at some levels. We will keep working away, we will try and find the ones that will fit in with what we can do and hopefully they will come in for the season.

It wasn't until the end of August that you brought in Neil Mellor last year and you've said that these players might not necessary be to be in your starting eleven but to strengthen your squad.
I'm a bit picky to be honest with you. I'm looking for players who are better than the first eleven, fourteen or fifteen or whatever it might be. I want players who are better and I may have to start to drop my levels a little bit and look at players who are going to make up the numbers in the squad but who are better than the ones who are on the fringes now. It is proving to be really difficult to get the right players in who will make the starting eleven immediately better. There are players out there but we have just got to keep working hard to try and get them here.

What about the progress of your first year pros? Andy Murphy has already gone away on loan, will similar loan options be what you are looking at the for the other two?
Possilbly, Dylan is still doing his rehab from an ankle clean-up that he has had. Chris McGrail may go out on loan, there has been an enquiry to take him on loan again but I want to get through pre-season and our players fulfil our fixtures. We've got a game at Rossendale on Tuesday night which I want them to play a part in and there's other lads who need a run out in it. Once we have completed our pre-season fixtures then I might consider allowing people like Chris to go out on loan. But it has to be right for us, I'm not going to leave ourselves with not enough bodies, I need to have bodies in here to be able to fulfil a full squad for ourselves.

Finally looking ahead to the Blackburn game, they'll offer a stern test.
I think they are a very good side, I think he's made some really good signings. The big one's Roque Santa Cruz, he's a top player and they've got some good strikers at the football club, they're a good solid Premiership team. We know it's going to be a tough test for us and it will give us a good run out in preparation for what will come next weekend.

Don't forget to tune into Whites World for live and exclusive coverage of the game for just £1.99. Coverage starts at 2.30pm.