Joe Colbeck heads a list of City players who have been told to go out on loan.

Stuart McCall wants to move on some of the fringe members of his squad and get them first-team football elsewhere.

The names of Craig Bentham, Tom Penford and young striker Luke Medley have all been circulated to other clubs. Simon Ainge would have been another but he will stay put after Matt Clarke picked up yet another injury.

McCall said: "We're going to have to trim the squad because we've got a lot of players not getting enough football.

"Most of them have played a lot for the reserves over the years and you can only do that so long. For the sake of them as much as us, they need to go out and play first-team football."

Colbeck has started five games this season and scored the winner at Lincoln but the winger was dropped after the Hereford defeat.

His mistake was blamed for the first goal at leaders MK Dons on Saturday after he came on as a substitute and he also gave away the free-kick which led to the second.

"At the moment I can't see his future here in the short term," admitted McCall.

"I've had a chat with Joe and told him he needs to get a good run of consecutive games under his belt.

"He's not had that in the last few weeks where he has been on the bench and it might benefit him going somewhere different.

"It's happened many times that players have gone out on loan, had five or six games and thoroughly enjoyed it.

"Whether it's in the same league or the Blue Square Premier, it gives them that chance of good, competitive football.

"We used to do it a lot at Sheffield United with the young players and it worked well.

"We sent Billy Sharp to Rushden a couple of years ago and he banged in the goals. He came back and went off to Scunthorpe and ended up joining them.

"Last season we did it with Jonathan Forte at Doncaster and he went on to sign for them full-time.

"It can turn out to be a long-term thing like that or in the short term you get a player coming back to the club confident and pushing for another chance."

Ainge, who has started only once in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy, must remain as central-defensive cover for Clarke, who strained his thigh after coming on as a sub at MK Dons. It is the latest in a catalogue of niggling injuries that have dogged him since he signed from Darlington.

McCall said: "It's frustrating for us not to be able to pick him but even more frustrating for the lad himself. He's desperate to play but keeps being held up by these little problems."

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