Luke Williams has hailed the defensive unity within his Notts County side ahead of their National League encounter with Altrincham this weekend.
In recent weeks the Magpies have suffered a number of defensive casualties, losing Aden Baldwin, Geraldo Bajrami, Richard Brindley, and Joel Taylor to the injury table in the opening ten games of the campaign.
But after returning following a long injury lay-off, Connell Rawlinson returned at a pivotal time for Notts, coming on to replace Brindley in their 2-0 win over Aldershot before playing back-to-back 90 minutes against Dorking Wanderers and York City.
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Sam Austin also made a return to the matchday squad after missing two games with a toe injury in what was a welcome boost for the Notts boss.
But speaking ahead of their meeting with Phil Parkinson's side this weekend, Williams was keen to highlight the unity within his squad, focusing specifically on his defence, but insisted he will need the whole of his squad to be ready when called upon ahead of a long National League season.
"I spoke to the players as a group in a meeting this afternoon and with the defenders in the whole squad.
"We talk as a group about the fact that everyone does the same work, everyone is included in the same work, and we have tactical games where we have two groups of players all rehearsing the demands I set for the team.
"They are all practicing whatever team they are on, what combination, everybody is practicing the same detail.
"I spoke to the group about the huge benefit of being able to suffer with a loss of Aden Baldwin for Geraldo Bajrami to go in and make a brilliant, seamless transition to play in the middle of the back three which is so important.
"Then we suffered the loss of Bajrami, Connell comes in and is able to perfect that detail. The central defenders had a meeting upstairs this afternoon and they kind of congratulated Connell for coming straight in after a long lay-off and be able to fit in quickly with the group and not miss the detail.
"And that is credit to everybody, and of course credit to Connell as an individual to really be focused and pick up on the detail, but also to be able to play through.
"It was impossible for him to not be suffering in pain because to play two 90-minute performances after such a long lay-off is amazing. That is the idea of training altogether and playing with each other so that they can come straight in and pick up and we have to do that all over the pitch."
While on the subject of those injured players, Williams was able to provide a positive update on each players' progression during their respective rehabilitations, explaining his squad should look a lot stronger in the coming weeks.
"Cedwyn is in a good place which is great, we also had Joel (Taylor) back in training and he looked very good, but we have to put Joel in stages in training, so he is not ready to do every action.
"Bajrami is developing well in terms of his rehab and he is coming along well. Aden is going in the right direction as well so fortunately we are not suffering with setbacks in the return to play protocol that we have so that is all good.
"The squad is in a decent position and will hopefully be stronger in a week or two weeks' time, it is going to be very strong."
