CITY manager Steve Castle has revealed that the club had been banned from registering players over the last fortnight. The ban, which has now ended, has hindered Castle s attempts to bolster his strike force, though the club has added attackers Henry Atu

CITY manager Steve Castle has revealed that the club had been banned from registering players over the last fortnight.

The ban, which has now ended, has hindered Castle's attempts to bolster his strike force, though the club has added attackers Henry Atu and Saul Otobo to their ranks, along with youth team duo Ross Dedman and goalkeeper Adam McWeeney.

"We've had a little bit of a registration problem over the last two weeks and now that's all cleared itself up hopefully we can get a few people in but it will obviously be on the budget and unfortunately it might have to be a couple out to get a couple in," explained Castle after Saturday's 1-0 defeat to Newport County.

When asked to elaborate on the ban the City boss said: "We were told that we couldn't get anyone registered and now everything has been cleared.

"I think it was just a little bit of red tape that needed to be clarified and with the business side of things that's been resolved. It hasn't been for the want of trying to get people in but we've just been scuppered a little bit for the last week or ten days."

The defeat to Newport was hard to take for City after matching their opponents in all departments except the one that matters - goals.

"I think really as an assessment of the game their set plays were a lot more dangerous than ours were, we never looked like we were going to score a goal from our set plays they looked like they were going to score a goal from every set play," said Castle.

"It's a great bit of individual play from the lad Henry who came on as a sub but the compliment to ourselves, they changed their formation, they couldn't live with us to a degree. We had some pockets of play that were absolutely fantastic but we just couldn't finish things off."

Charlie Henry's goal was the one real piece of quality in the game and Castle refused to blame goalkeeper Paul Bastock.

"I can't take an awful lot away from the lad (Charlie Henry). The lad's on the edge of the box, James Quilter for the last three or four games at right back has been superb, the lad's got a yard and Paul Bastock's apologised, it's gone very quick.

"I would probably have said Paul Bastock would've saved that eight times out of ten. It's harsh but really we need to psychologically get ourselves in front and we didn't, it was always 0-0 and you're always liable to some sort of kick in the you know whats," added the City boss.

The City boss was pleased with his side's performance and called for them to repeat it in the coming weeks.

"The good thing about it is we've matched arguably the best team in the league at the moment," said the 43-year-old. "Really we've got to show that desire and performance against the lower teams and sneak the points. That could have gone either way but dare I say it, quality you pay for has won the day."

City have a blank Saturday this weekend but return to action next Wednesday when they visit Lewes.

"No disrespect, I hope I don't live to eat these words but they were one of the worst teams we had down here," said Castle. "They may well have changed, I know financially they're struggling a little bit but we've got some good players and hopefully we can go away there and put in a performance like we've just done there.