DAVE Rainford says his team are itching to get going again after nearly three weeks without a game due to the big freeze.

The Clarets captain was all set to travel with the side to Dorchester Town last Saturday, before the game fell victim to the weather and the squad were hauled back to Melbourne Park for a training session behind the main stand.

That followed the previous weekend's postponement against Weston-super-Mare and now, with two games in 72 hours against Havant & Waterlooville and then Weston-super-Mare, Rainford is desperate to get back on the pitch.

"This season it looked like one of those years when we were going to fly through the fixture list without any problems," the midfielder told the Chronicle.

"You look at it now and we've gone nearly three weeks without playing and we're itching to get back out there.

"Our last game was a decent draw at Welling but that seems a long time ago now, to be fair I thought it was a game we should have won."

A long lay-off and then a sudden burst of fixtures does present its own problems though and Clarets manager Glenn Pennyfather may well have to shuffle his pack over the two games.

Central defender Adam Tann has had a recurrence of a hip problem and could be out for sometime as he waits for a scan. That's likely to mean Justin Miller reverting to the centre of defence and Ben Nunn filling in at right-back.

With little time between games Rainford, who recently recovered from a knee ligament problem but is now fully fit, has urged his team-mates to be sensible in the intervening period.

"They know they have to hydrate properly and eat right," he said. "You can't go out on the razzle on the Saturday night and have a take away."

Indeed the 32-year-old will be sporting a pair of recovery tights to help repair his muscle fibres. "I've slept in them before," he said. "They're like the socks you wear on aeroplanes and they just help the muscles to recover a bit quicker."

There's been continued frustration on the transfer front this week with Pennyfather revealing he's missed out on a shortlist of four attacking players, three have joined other clubs in the same league while the other decided to stay put at his current club.

"We've missed out on a number of players for financial reasons," he said. "To be fair if players don't want to join your club for that reason then I don't want them anyway.

"I wouldn't say I'm annoyed about it and as a club we won't be held to ransom."

The boss also argued that having a 20-plus goalscorer doesn't guarantee promotion.

"You've just got to look at (Adam) Birchall at Dover last season," he said. "He was by far and away the top scorer in the league and they didn't get promoted.

"There seems to be this perception in the media and by the fans that we need another striker but we're getting goals from all over the pitch."

Defender Mark Haines, currently on loan at Bishop's Stortford, is set to be in contention for Monday night's game with his loan agreement due to run out.