MARK Cooper has backed Grant Hall to learn from a wretched spell of form and emerge a better player for it.

Hall, who was partially to blame for each of the four goals scored by non-league Macclesfield Town in their romping FA Cup victory over Swindon Town on Saturday, has been the main target of fans’ criticism since but Cooper stressed that one man was not responsible for the defeat alone.

The young centre-back arrived on loan from Tottenham in the summer and, with Troy Archibald-Henville and Aaron Oakley unfit, Cooper will continue to stick with Hall.

“Unfortunately Grant’s in a position where he’s a young boy, he’s in the team and he’s got to learn while he’s in the team,” said the Town boss.

“With the mistakes obviously Grant is going to come in for some stick but there are 11 of them out there and they’ve all got to make sure they do their own jobs and not hide behind individuals that are making mistakes, and be together as a team.

“Grant will get the stick because he made some mistakes, but he’s got to learn from that and come back even stronger and make sure he’s a good defender first and foremost. He’ll come through it.”

With several players out injured, Cooper will struggle to make mass changes for tonight’s Johnstone’s Paint Trophy clash with Wycombe.

Nicky Ajose is likely to get a start in place of Nile Ranger and Louis Thompson and Ryan Harley could play a half each, while Cooper is set to revert to a 4-3-3 formation.

“It would be an ideal time to give Jay a rest with his knee but we’re short at the back,” said the Robins manager. “Nathan Thompson is still injured and he’s an option for us at centre-back because he played really well there at Oldham. We are short at the back and it would be an ideal time to rest one or two, but unfortunately we can’t.

“We have to go with what we’ve got and we have to make sure that those players step up and make sure they don’t concede silly goals.”

Cooper is predicting a stern test from Wycombe, who currently lie 12th in League Two.

The Town chief shared a pitch with Wanderers boss Gareth Ainsworth during his own playing career and he expects to see the Adams Park manager’s character in his team.

“If they play anything like their manager they’ll be strong, they’ll be fit, they’ll be organised and they’ll keep going for 90 minutes,” he said.

“They’ve got some decent footballers in the team so they’re going to come, they’re going to be make it difficult and after watching us on Saturday they’ll think they’ve got every chance of progressing.

“He (Ainsworth) was a competitor and he’s done remarkably well in his first stint as a manager.”