JOSE Baxter and Peter Clarke, who missed Athletic’s opening day defeat to MK Dons through injury and illness respectively, remain doubtful for tomorrow’s League Two clash at Forest Green Rovers.

Latics boss Frankie Bunn admitted his young defence – without the likes of Clarke, Andy Taylor and Cameron Dummigan – made mistakes at times last week but praised their attitude and said they will learn from the experience.

“I thought the young lads, to a man, were terrific,” beamed Bunn.

“The eldest person in the back five, including the goalkeeper, was Rob Hunt at 23.

“Sam Graham is 17, Tom Hamer 18, George Edmundson 20 and Daniel Iverson is 21. But we believe in them.

“They can cope. Everybody makes mistakes but it’s how you learn from them and that will hold them in good stead.

“Clarke would add a little bit of experience but he still hasn’t trained yet – hopefully he’ll be back out on the grass today (Friday). We’ve just got to wait on that one.”

Bunn also believes his side were missing “a bit of gold dust” in the final third against Milton Keynes.

Fans’ favourite Jose Baxter could be the man to provide it after stepping up his fitness programme this week but tomorrow’s game may arrive slightly too soon.

Bunn added: “We got some minutes into Jose in the friendly at Bolton on Tuesday. He’s been a bit short of match-time so we gave him half a game and he came through unscathed.

“But again, he’s perhaps not quite ready at the moment.”

Following the Forest Green clash, Latics host Frank Lampard’s Derby County in the League Cup first round on Tuesday.

Bunn said: “The game at Bolton was a training exercise for some of the players who haven’t been involved as much because we’ll need people over the next fortnight or so when we’ve got Saturday and then Tuesday games. We need them to be ready because it’s going to be a tough couple of weeks.”

Two men who definitely won’t be involved tomorrow are full backs Taylor and Dummigan.

Taylor, a summer signing from Blackpool, is nursing an ankle injury picked up in training prior to the MK Dons clash. Dummigan’s groin problem is longer-term.

There will be some familiar faces for Athletic’s large band of away supporters – 300 more tickets went on sale this week after the original batch of 700 sold out – in the Forest Green squad. Carl Winchester, who was on target in Rovers’ 4-1 win at Grimsby, is expected to line up alongside Joe Mills and Reuben Reid.