Steve Parkin has criticised the fixture planners for putting too much “strain” on teams like City.

Tuesday’s goalless draw with Chesterfield was their ninth midweek game of the season – with another four to come in the next five weeks.

City’s unbeaten progress in the cup competitions has accounted for half of those. But Parkin feels the league computer has done them no favours.

By the end of the year, they will have played six League Two games in midweek – compared with only two scheduled for the second half of the season. With cup ties drying up at that stage, it creates a huge imbalance.

Assistant boss Parkin said: “It’s just not sensible to cram all these fixtures in before Christmas and I don’t agree with it. Look after that and it just pans out to one game a week again.

“They’ve shortened the season for whatever reason and it definitely has an impact on clubs where your squads are probably not that big.

“It puts a lot of strain on the players. To play extra games in a week is difficult anyway but to have eight or nine in a month is a big ask.”

The current league season is a fortnight shorter than usual. It kicked off a week later because some grounds were still being used for Olympic football and it finishes earlier with the knock-on effect of Wembley staging the Champions League final.

City have recently lost both centre halves, Luke Oliver – for the rest of the season – and Andrew Davies for at least three months. Parkin felt the congested programme could be a factor, however carefully teams try to shuffle their resources.

He added: “Once you get to the end of the month, fielding the right team is so important but the players are still fatigued. There’s no getting away from that.

“Unfortunately when you do get very fatigued you do tend to pick injuries up.

“It’s not just us. Look right across the board at the teams both in our division and the one above playing all these fixtures.

“A lot of them are getting injuries and some of them are quite serious ones. That’s how it is.

“We’re obviously delighted to get through in the cups and we’ve got a plum tie with Arsenal coming up next month. But it is another fixture on the list.”

Meanwhile, ticket details for the Capital One Cup quarter-final should be announced today.

Negotiations between the clubs are ongoing but there is a strong possibility that Arsenal could take the whole Midland Road stand.

That would still leave around 20,000 seats for home fans, with City reopening areas of Valley Parade that have been shut in recent years, including the north-west corner next to the Kop.

With huge demand expected for the December 11 clash, City have come up with a scheme that will heavily favour season-ticket and flexi-card holders.