Exeter City manager Paul Tisdale has a few injury concerns going into Tuesday night’s match at Port Vale but says the players will be backing themselves to get a result.

Jordan Storey and Pierce Sweeney both picked up knocks in the 1-1 draw with Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday which makes them doubtful for the trip to Vale Park. However, Tis says that is the reason why they have strength in depth aided by a few loan players joining the club this season.

“We have got a good squad and that is why we have got Kane Wilson, Kyle Edwards and Ryan Loft in on loan,” he said. “That is why we have got good strength in depth for these situations.

“For the course of the season you cannot expect to have the same team out there every week and that nothing goes wrong. Yes, the games are coming thick and fast and the St James Park pitch puts extra stress on the players. The duress that it puts their muscles under is possibly extra than it would be normally. However, I think we go into Tuesday thinking okay we might have a few changes again but we have to back ourselves.”

Jordan suffered a nasty clash with Adebayo Akinfenwa on Saturday. The young City defender, who made his first League Two start for the club, in the 1-0 defeat to Luton Town the week before, had been impressing at the centre of defence which created a problem for Tis on Saturday.

“The doctor tried really hard to get him stitched up and sorted out but there was no guarantee he would make it back onto the pitch, so we made a substitution and Craig Woodman came on,” said Tis. “We just seem to have one after the other with centre half issues.

“We have not been able to put the same pair out there for quite a while now. Jordan Moore-Taylor was fantastic coming back into the side on Saturday. We have missed him and he did a wonderful job.

"For Jordan Storey it was such a shame for him. He played so well at Luton and he looked really assured again on Saturday and we probably needed him in there. However, he got injured and Dean Moxey went back into the centre of defence again. He seems to be the back-up every time and he did a really good job.”

As for Pierce Sweeney, he picked up a knock late on but had to continue as City had already used all three substitutes at that point.

“He was injured and he would have come off ordinarily, but you just hope and hope and hope that he has not made it 10 times worse,” said Tis. “That was the issue with the early substitution (for Jordan Storey). You don’t ordinarily want to take a centre half off in the first half because it limits your options in the second. We needed to make a substitution with 10 minutes to go but we couldn’t.”

City’s match at Vale Park kicks-off at 7.45pm on Tuesday.