VICKERSTOWN boss Dave Round snr is hoping his patched-up troops can get back to winning ways against rock-bottom Lostock St Gerards tomorrow (2pm kick-off).

Round’s side are struggling in fourth-from-bottom place in the West Lancs League Premier Division, with a major contributory factor to their poor run of results being a crippling injury list.

The Walney side have several first-team regulars on the sidelines, and Round will yet again have to tap into the talent among the Park Vale second and third strings to get a competitive side on the pitch. The missing Town players are: goalkeeper Nick Beach (shoulder injury); full-back Steve Jones (suspended); centre half Mike Imison (foot); centre half Scott Hammond (waiting on a knee cartilage operation); midfielders Jordan Dix and Dave Round jnr (both groin) and striker Sean Paterson (hernia operation).

In addition, centre half Dave Jepson is rated as 50-50 for tomorrow’s game with a knee injury, so Round is having to shuffle his pack in all areas of the field.

“It’s a massive game for us,” said the manager.

“It’s an opportunity for us to turn the corner. We’re looking to get a home win and then get back on the road. The problem is, we have had a lot of injuries.

“We are having a really bad time at the moment. A couple of lads have had ops, a couple more are waiting on ops and we have one or two niggles and a suspension as well.

“It has hit us really hard. It has been like this for the whole of September and October, but we have just got to get on with it. It’s hard trying to put three teams out.

“It’s just a case of trying to get by at the moment until everyone is fit again and then kicking on from there.

“The reserves are going well (they lie fourth in the Furness Premier League Premier Division), but it doesn’t help when I have to take four or five players off them.

“We’ve got goalkeper Jordan Belcher stepping up from the reserves tomorrow. He will do a good job, but he’s struggling a bit with his knee, so we could do with getting another keeper in.

“I think I might have to look at my training methods. There’s obviously something wrong there!”

Despite the absentees, Round is still confident his side can get the three points against a Lostock side who have lost 13 out of 13 in the league so far.

“I think we’ve got a strong enough team out to get a result,” he said.

“When we played Slyne a few weeks ago (2-0 home defeat), we played well, but we just missed chances. We are just not scoring goals at the moment. It was a good performance, but we missed chances and conceded a couple of sloppy goals.

“It’s difficult when you are missing the spine of your team, that has taken it out of us a bit. And it affects training as well when you’ve got eight first teamers missing.”

Elsewhere in the West Lancs League tomorrow, Vickerstown’s Premier Division neighbours Crooklands head to Burnley United.

Division One action sees high-flying Hawcoat head to Wyre Villa, GSK Ulverston Rangers entertain Lytham Town, Askam United host Ladybridge and Dalton United will try and kick-start their campaign at home to Mill Hill St Peters.

In Division Two, Brian Dawson’s Millom head to Milnthorpe, Swarthmoor go to leaders CMB and Walney Island travel to Stoneclough. while Furness Cavs and Furness Rovers both enjoy home comforts – against Bolton County and Leyland Utd respectively.

Scott Redhead will take charge of Holker Old Boys for the first time as they head to Widnes in the North West Counties Division One.