JUDGING by Gary Bowyer’s transfer deadline day signings it is clear he is still trying to get the backbone of his side right.

A goalkeeper, a centre back and a central midfielder play a key part in forming that backbone and they are the three positions he brought in on Monday.

That’s despite already having an abundance of competition for those places.

With Jason Steele coming in it would look as if Jake Kean and Simon Eastwood are not going to play much of a part in the foreseeable.

Then it’s a question of whether Jason Steele is here to push Paul Robinson or take his place.

That will become clear over the next few months.

Who Gary will play at centre back should also soon become clear because with Shane Duffy coming in, we’ve now got four along with Grant Hanley, Matt Kilgallon and Alex Baptiste.

There are certainly options there – with even more in midfield.

Ryan Tunnicliffe’s signing was a strange one only because Gary seemed to have enough defensive-minded midfielders already.

But for the shape and the way he wants to play, Gary obviously wants to have a look at other players.

And he’s certainly got enough of them in centre midfield now.

Tom Cairney can play there, although he now seems set to play out wide, while Jason Lowe, Lee Williamson, Corry Evans and even Chris Taylor, even though he is more a wide player, can all play in the central two positions.

That’s a lot of players for two places. But, as I’ve said before, it’s important you get the engine room running right as, if it’s not, you’ll be up and down.

And if you do get that right it goes a long way to getting your backbone right. Once Gary does get it correct, it should leave him with a strong side.

But at the moment, at this early stage of the season, it’s not 100 per cent happening yet.

There have been 15 points on offer so far. You need to be averaging 10 but we’re not, we’re at 50 per cent, which is probably where we were last season.

To get more points we’ve got to knock the silly goals that we are conceding on the head.

Some have come about when we’ve sat back and tried to defend a lead and some have come about through lapses in concentration.

Unfortunately one error from one player can lose you a goal.

We’re still trying to get that balance of attacking and scoring properly and not conceding, it’s very difficult and only time will tell if we get there.