Mark Stimson admits he may be unable to give Tottenham loanee Leigh Mills the opportunity to impress.

As long as regular centre-backs Simon King and Garry Richards look solid in defence, Stimson is unwilling to break that partnership and gamble on the 20-year-old.

"It’s difficult and Leigh understands that," said Stimson.

"If he had sat and watched the last two games and one of the centre-halves had been run ragged, or we had conceded three or four goals and it was one centre-half’s fault, then he might have a case but at the moment I don’t think either of them have put a foot wrong."

"It would be very difficult to leave one of those contracted players out for a player who is just here on loan for a month. What you can do is then give them the hump and rightly so. They might just then drop off a little.

"Leigh is patient and he knows that we’re looking at him in training and if he gets the opportunity he will do his best.

"If he doesn’t get that opportunity in a month then we’ll have a talk again and see what happens.

"At the moment it would be very harsh if I took one of the centre-halves out. Tottenham didn’t say he had to play.

"He was excited about coming here because he’s heard good things and I told him to be patient and he’ll have to be.

"If, after a month, he feels like he’ll get a chance, he’ll stay and if he doesn’t, we’ll all move on."