Rams facing injury crisis ahead of Royston contest

Two derby matches in the FA Trophy against Winchester City have taken their toll on the Rams, with several players struggling to be fit for this weekend’s Southern League division one central fixture.

Striker Callum Coker and midfielder Ben Neal both had to sit out Tuesday night’s replay at Love Lane with injuries they sustained at Winchester last Saturday.

To compound matters further, defender Matt Graham and midfielder Harry Wedlake had to be substituted during Tuesday night’s game after picking up knocks.

Many other players are nursing injuries going into a tough league fixture but Lines, who is Petersfield’s director of football, is confident he will still be able to field a strong side.

As well as keeping tabs on the current squad’s progress in the treatment room, Lines is also looking to recruit new players to bolster his squad before kick-off at the weekend.

He is hoping to have one or two new faces in the line-up come 3pm on Saturday afternoon.

Royston have won all four of the games they have played in October so far while the Rams were knocked out by goals from former players Joe Briggs and Jamie Ford as they lost 3-1 to Winchester on Tuesday.

Meanwhile Petersfield’s search for a new manager is continuing as club officials narrow down the field of candidates to produce a list of preferred choices.

Chairman Graeme Moir revealed they were close to making an appointment last weekend and that the appointment process is ever changing at present.

‘We have some very good candidates in the frame for the job and we want to make sure we get the right person in to lead us away from the bottom of the table,’ said Moir.

‘Some are with clubs at the moment so that adds to the difficulty of getting some deals over the line but while we need to act quickly we also need to give ourselves a little bit of time to consider our options.

‘If things go to plan how we think they will in the next few days we should be able to make some form of announcement early next week.

‘I can’t promise we will definitely be able to say something then but that is the current timetable we are working to.’