Braintree Town manager Alan Devonshire has said he may look to add an additional pre-season fixture to his team’s list of summer games to give some of his players more of a chance to gain match fitness.

A number of Iron players and triallists have picked up knocks in recent pre-season outings and Devonshire admits he may have to tweak preparations ahead of the start of the Conference Premier season on August 9.

Midfielder Dan Sparkes has only played one game so far after picking up an ankle injury, while full-back Ryan Peters is yet to feature due to a calf problem and Sean Marks, Chez Isaac and triallist Michael Bakare were also missing for Wednesday’s 3-1 defeat at Chelmsford City.

The Iron’s next game is against Cambridge United at the Amlin Stadium (kick-off 3pm) tomorrow ahead of a home fixture against West Ham on Tuesday and trips to Kingstonian on Monday and to Wealdstone on August 2, but Devonshire now wants to add another date into the diary.

The Iron boss said: “There are some of the lads who have picked up knocks so I’ll probably be talking to (chairman) Lee (Harding) about sorting out another friendly.

“We have a free night on the Tuesday before the season starts so one could go in there.

“It probably won’t be a high-profile game, but Dan Sparkes and Ryan Peters won’t be fit until next Saturday and that won’t be the best preparation ahead of the season.”

Devonshire is also hoping that he will be able to announce at least one new signing in the next few days.

He added: “There should be someone coming in.

“I’m hoping I’ll get something sorted by the end of the week.”

His priority remains to bring in a defender and that’s unlikely to have changed after their defeat at Chelmsford when he was disappointed with his team’s early display that saw them trail 3-0 before a consolation goal from Jordan Cox.

He said: “The first 25 minutes were awful.

“They were up for it and we weren’t, but after that it was quite even.

“I don’t worry about results in pre-season, but I was disappointed with how we played and I let the players know that.”