Hawks have doubts over six players ahead of Hemel Hempstead visit

Manager Paul Doswell is expecting to make up to 'four or five' changes from the side that were stunned in the FA Cup second round at Marine on Sunday.

Several of the squad are still bearing the physical bruises to go with the mental damage being carried from the last-gasp extra-time loss to Neil Young's side.

The Hawks already had fitness doubts over several of their squad heading into that tie which only worsened after a gruelling 120 minutes on Merseyside.

Goalkeeper Ross Worner (ankle and Achilles), defenders Sam Magri (calf) and Craig Robson (knee), Billy Clifford (hamstring) and strike duo Joe Iaciofano (groin) and Tommy Wright (quad) all missed training yesterday ahead of welcoming Hemel Hempstead to Westleigh Park.

Added to that, midfielder Theo Widdrington is facing up to six weeks on the sidelines with a quad injury picked up at Marine while second choice goalkeeper Joe Tupper is nursing a slight quad knock.

It leaves Doswell with doubts over whether six of his squad will be able to feature against Hemel.

But rather than view it as a negative, the Hawks boss instead sees it as a chance for some other members of the squad to step up.

‘There are five question marks at the minute I would say,' said Doswell.

‘It will be a question of whether we’ve got 13 or 14 on the bench or whether we’ve can name a 16.

‘Other people were going to get opportunities (against Hemel) anyway, I knew whether we won or lost, the weekend would be a real mentally fatiguing weekend as well as physically demanding so we would have freshened it up anyway.

‘There are other people that now come into the frame. There are one or two of the younger ones that deserve to get a chance.’

Coming just four days after the defeat in Liverpool, the home meeting with Hemel provides a chance to quickly brush off that surprise cup exit.

For Doswell, who has never shied away from stating promotion is the priority this season, it's an opportunity to close the gap on the teams at the top.

Currently in 11th spot having played just five games, Hawks are 15 points off leaders Dorking Wanderers and five points adrift of the play-off places.

But they have played a number of matches less than other teams in the division and start a run of three home games in eight days when Hemel visit.

And Doswell sees this as a chance for Hawks to start putting focus into climbing up the table after a 'big bump' at Marine.

He added: 'From myself, Bairdy and Simon (Walton’s) perspective we’re totally focused on doing as well as we can in the league, hopefully getting in that top seven, if not finishing first. That’s the plan and that’s the idea.

‘We’re getting fitter because we had all those injuries pre-season. We haven’t hit our straps yet, we know that, but I think we will.

‘Like I said, we’ve got a good enough management team to ride the bumps, and this is a pretty big bump.'

The Hawks are boosted by the returns of Godfrey Poku (suspended) and Danny Kedwell (cup-tied) after the pair were ruled out of facing Marine.