SALISBURY City, who slumped to their fourth defeat on the spin last night, will be looking to get their season back on track when they host Kettering Town on Saturday.

But, according to manager Nick Holmes, they might need a hefty slice of luck to help them rediscover the form that had seen them among the Blue Square Premier's front runners.

Injury to a number of first team players plus key decisions seemingly going against them on the field have brought a superb start to a grinding halt.

advertisementCity, who were as high as second place just a few weeks ago, have slipped to 13th place after picking up just one point from five outings.

Reduced to nine men following the dismissals of Jon Bass and Andy Sandell, Whites went down 3-1 at home to Altrincham on Tuesday - a defeat which followed hot on the heels of a 2-0 reverse against another of their bogey teams, Histon.

Bass and Sandell will now miss Saturday's visit of the Poppies through suspension adding to Holmes' selection nightmare.

"We'll have to have a count up of who we've got and take it from there," he said.

"But I doubt if any of the injured lads will be back in time for Saturday."

City's injury crisis deepened when Darrell Clarke was forced to pull out of Tuesday's game due to a sickness bug while Djoumin Sangare, who had returned from injury for the Histon trip, is now back on the treatment table.

"It's not easy with the injury situation. We just need a bit of a break right now," added Holmes, whose side also suffered four defeats in a row this time last term.

"The whole season seems to be a mirror image of what happened last time."

Newcomers Kettering Town have hit the ground running and after a midweek away win at Eastbourne Borough, Mark Cooper's side are up to second in the table.

"It'll be a tough one," admitted Holmes, who believes key decisions by match officials went against them in Tuesday's defeat.

"I think we got on the wrong end of some rough decisions but there's not a lot we can do about it. We've just got to try and get it out of our system and bounce back on Saturday."

On the plus side Holmes is delighted with the progress of summer signing Rob Sinclair, sidelined since injuring a knee in a pre-season friendly.

"Rob's back in full time training and he looks really sharp. He hasn't played any games so it'd be a risk to put him straight in. But he's worked really hard to get where he is and it'd be a plus having him back."

3:35pm Wednesday 8th October 2008

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