TOMMY Cassidy admits he must be utterly open-minded about recruitment in his bid to help Blyth Spartans pull off a great escape.

The Croft Park club entertain Altrincham tonight second bottom of table, 12 points from safety.

Cassidy’s phone has scarcely stopped ringing since he replaced Steve Cuggy in the Spartans hot-seat.

He hopes to extend Bury midfielder Max Harrop’s loan spell for a further month, and is understood to have been running the rule over former Blyth favourite Michael Tait and ex-Newcastle youth star Daniel Neary.

Certainly, he says, he can rule nothing out. “We’ve got to be open to everything, I can’t afford to say ‘No’ to anything,” Cassidy said.

“I’ve got to tell them to come along and we’ll have a look at you. We had about 18 or 20 on Thursday for training. When I first arrived it was 14.

“So it’s looking a bit healthier, we’ve got a wee bit more competition for places. I’m happier with the way things are going but a win would make me a lot happier!”

The chances of putting a smile on his face tonight are slim, with Altrincham seventh. But after losing at home to Corby Town on Saturday, Cassidy said: “Altrincham beat Workington last week, so I’ll get the lowdown on them from Workington’s manager. They’re up there as well – everybody’s up there because of where we are! Worst-case scenario is both games lost (with last Saturday’s).

“It’s going to be very difficult, the players know that. But I want them to know that if they give me everything we can win matches. We just have to be a wee bit more professional.

“I’ve put a few little rules down, like they’ve got to ring me on a Friday night to tell me that they’re all right for the next day, or not. It gets them focused on the match.

“There’s nothing worse than finding out at 1.30pm on a Saturday afternoon that a player’s been feeling bad all night. Little things like that will get them up for the game. We’re trying to get a bit more professionalism going, it could be the difference between staying up or going down.”