HARRY Kewell has warned Oldham Athletic are in for a tough stretch, but he is confident he has the players to get through it.

Latics have embarked on a 12-game run of Tuesday-Saturday fixtures, beginning with this week's 4-3 defeat at Forest Green Rovers on Tuesday, running through to March 27, when they travel to Leyton Orient.

The Easter games, on Good Friday at home to Stevenage and away to Kewell's former club Crawley on Easter Monday, follow swiftly after.

It is a period where the Australian feels his squad rotation system will be crucial.

And, despite a mixed bag of results and a lack of consistency this season, he is confident he has the personnel to rise to the challenge.

"It's a big period that we're coming into," said Latics boss Kewell.

"We have 13 games to go before we have a slight break, so it's going to be tough. There is going to be rotation, there is going to be movement. I have options on the bench.

“I know this team has a lot more in them, they want to play the right way.”

And Kewell said his team selection would be based on the opposition’s style of play as well as his own.

Arsenal loanee Harry Clarke was one of those to miss out on Tuesday night with Oldham having to try and manage seven loanees when only five can be named in a matchday squad.

One of those, Serhat Tasdemir, made his debut off the bench at Forest Green for the final half an hour having had to wait to get going since his deadline-day arrival from Peterborough.

“We’ll get the best team to play for the team that we’re about to play,” added the Latics chief, warning that there would be bumps in the road of this hectic run of games.

“We will falter. It’s still a new process what they’re all going through and when we get it right we’ll be good.

“The one thing that I know is these boys won’t give up. We’ll play the right way.”

Kewell is also confident of the character he has got within his ranks.

Despite going down 4-3 at high-flying Forest Green in their last game, following a 17-day break due to postponements, they showed plenty of battling qualities.

Latics clawed their way back from 2-0 down, and then quickly made it 3-3 after trailing 3-2 on the hour.

They had further chances after that, only to concede what proved to be the winner in the 67th minute.

“They will fight, and all my teams will fight,” said Kewell.

“You feel like we dominated, especially in the first half. In the second half we tried everything.”

Kewell is satisfied with the attacking options at his disposal, but added: “They’ve got to know there’s more to football than just scoring goals.”