Mark Bartley says he will begin blooding the best of Marlow’s youngsters as he focuses his attention on building a squad for next season.

Seven games remain in Southern One Central but with the Blues firmly stuck in mid-table, with no hopes of reaching the play-offs or worries about relegation, Bartley has decided to shift his eyes onto seeing who will make the grade for next season.

Several of the club’s under-18s have caught the eye of the Marlow boss, who says now is the perfect time to see if they’re good enough to handle playing in the first team.

“If some of the youth team boys come in and play three or four out of the last seven and they show that they’re capable of doing more than I’m getting from some of the senior players then it’s a no brainer,” said Bartley.

“I’d take that lad, work with him over the summer and potentially giving the game time if he’s good enough. It works for them as well in terms of career progression because to be playing first team football in the Southern League at 18-years-old would be good.

“There’s plenty of opportunities for those players and there are plenty of opportunities for those that are coming in, but they need to show that they’re better than what I have otherwise they end up needing a new home at the beginning of the season.”

While he has one eye on next season, on Saturday Bartley saw his team go down 2-0 to Northwood, who scored a goal in each half to leave Oak Tree Road with all three points.

It was a third defeat in six matches for Marlow and one which left their manager with a sense of disappointment.

He said: “We had a game in the week (against Barton Rovers) and I thought we played really well then, but we just weren’t really firing on all cylinders on Saturday.

“We created one or two openings but put everything down the throat of the ‘keeper, and they benefited from a couple of our own mistakes for the two goals. I don’t think they came and beat us, I think we beat ourselves.

“They got the first goal from a back pass from Dan Hicks which their forward ran onto, intercepted and rounded the ‘keeper.

“They kind of just held onto that and we were chasing the game, committing men forward and then they got a penalty and that was that. I’m a little bit disappointed as the lads are capable of more than they showed on Saturday.”

Marlow meet Uxbridge on Saturday for the third time this season having knocked them out of the Red Insure Cup with a 1-0 win back in October before they succumbed to a 2-0 loss in the league in December.

“Tony Choules (Uxbridge manager) builds good sides and they’re always very difficult to beat. He’s a very experienced manager and I expect nothing different from them really,” said Bartley.

“His team will be efficient, they’ll be effective and we’ll have to work hard to get something from the game. We’re capable of doing that and the lads that are put out on the field Saturday will know what their jobs. I expect a competitive game but it’s one that we can get a positive result from.”