MANAGER Steve Shaughnessy has written off Winsford United's promotion chances in the New Year as two of his young stars face lengthy lay-offs.

Midfield dynamo Carl Rendell completed 90 minutes against Witton Albion on Boxing Day, but he cracked a knee cap in the 1-0 defeat and is likely to miss the rest of the season.

Goalkeeper Matthew Conkie also played through the pain but his broken hand will sideline him for eight to 10 weeks.

Reserve stopper Karl Walton, formerly of Middlewich Town, will step in for Conkie while the signing of Mike Scully, who has played professionally in Sweden, should account for Rendell's absence.

"Carl finished the game alright so I couldn't believe it when he phoned me up the next day and said he'd been to hospital," said Shaughnessy.

"He said they found a cracked knee cap so I would imagine he would be out for the rest of the season."

After three months away, Lee Clowes is also set to return to the line-up as Shaughnessy attempts to wake his side from their Christmas hangover.

He said: "It seems to have gone a bit pear-shaped in the last four games. The defeat at Bradford knocked the lads' confidence when we lost 4-0 after doing so well for 70 minutes.

"I think we're suffering from a severe lack of confidence but the display at Witton gave me a little bit more hope. Even though we didn't play particularly well we didn't give away any stupid goals and looked a bit stronger, but it's the only thing I can take out of it.

"It's been a bad last few games but it doesn't mean our season has totally caved in, even though we're not where I want us to be."

Blues slipped to 14th in UniBond One after their defeats at Belper and Witton over the festive period, and their chance to put things right in a home match with Chorley on New Year's Day was foiled by the weather.

This leaves Winsford with three more away games this week, two in the UniBond League Cup at Accrington Stanley tonight (Wednesday) and Trafford on Tuesday.

Sandwiched between is a tricky league trip to Ossett Town, who held the Blues 0-0 at Barton Stadium last month.

If a recovery is to begin in Yorkshire on Saturday (3pm kick-off), the manager believes the key could be a return to goalscoring form for his strike partner Danny Worthington who suffered a December drought.

"Danny was scoring goals for fun but the ball just isn't going in the net for him," said Shaughnessy. "I'm confident it's going to mend itself but it's just a case of when.

"I'm not too down about it because we've had some tough games over Christmas, with three away matches at teams above us.

"We needed to get some points out of those if we were to stand a chance of promotion but that seems to have gone out of the window now.

"A few teams are way way in front of us so we will be trying to stay as high as we can for as long as we can, but we've still got a basis for a good squad for next season."

Next Wednesday, January 10, an open meeting will take place about the future of Barton Stadium. Residents, supporters, councillors and grant organisations are all expected to attend.