Barnes said: “As much as Andy Taylor was an important player for us, and we’ve been losing important players, you have accept that in football players come and go and we have to try and see if we can improve without them.

“I have great faith in Aaron Cresswell for the left-back position.

“He’s a young player with a good left foot and we’ll be working with him.”

Meanwhile Barnes said he was pleased by aspects of Tranmere’s performance as they opened the pre-season programme with a 3-2 defeat to local part-timers Cammell Laird last night.

Barnes said: “It was a disappointing result but I was encouraged by the performance, particularly in the way we passed and moved the ball.

“The first goal went through the centre-backs when it should have been cleared and the next two were thrown in by the goalkeeper but that can happen.

“I try to take the goals out when I look at performance.

“In terms of our approach play we moved the ball well in midfield and to the front men.

“We had a number of opportunities around the box.”