ANY football manager will tell you they are up against it when they have four goalkeepers unavailable.

That is the problem facing Vickerstown boss Dave Round tomorrow, as his team prepare for the visit of Slyne with Hest.

The Walney side find themselves propping up the West Lancs League Premier Division table, having won just one of their eight games so far.

Considering Town finished eighth last season and only one player departed in the summer – Danny Keenan heading to Holker Old Boys – their lowly position will have come as a bit of a surprise to many.

However, when you consider the player shortage Round has had to deal with, due to a combination of injuries, suspensions, holidays and work commitments, it is no great shock they are struggling.

Town have been hardest hit in defence, with the lack of a settled back four leading to lapses and sloppy goals conceded, and the keeper crisis has just compounded the problems.

First-choice Andy Ireland is serving the final match of a three-game ban.

Round would have called on reserves keeper Josh Tranter as a short-term replacement, but he damaged his knee ligaments in action for the seconds.

Instead, A-team number one Mark Jones got the nod, only to also suffer a knee ligament injury.

In addition, experienced keeper Stu Eccles is unavailable until next month due to work commitments, leaving Round thankful to Rob Spence for coming to the rescue.

Once a talented performer between the sticks, but now better known for his exploits on the golf course, Spence has signed on as cover and looks likely to be wearing the gloves for tomorrow’s home game against mid-table Slyne.

“The goalkeeping situation is really bad at the moment, ” said Round.

“It has been a bit of a nightmare all round for us to be honest.

“It has been like this since the start of the season, but I guess all managers have these problems to deal with, with injuries and shift work, and you have just got to get on with it.

“Availability has been the big problem for us, as I’m sure a lot of the other local coaches will tell you.

“We’ve got a couple of long-term injuries, we’ve also had a few lads on holiday and some of the players aren’t always available because of working shifts.

“We’ve been missing four or five on a weekly basis and that is very difficult deal to with when you are playing at this standard of football.

“This week, for instance Sean Paterson is on holiday, my lad (Dave Round junior) is in Mexico at a wedding, Scott Hammond is missing through work and Steve Jones and Steve Kewley are out.

“We’ve also had Jordan Dix out for most of the season with a hernia. He is waiting for an operation, and Joe Pearson has just come back from two months out with a broken hand.”

Despite all the disruption, Round has been pleased with his side’s performances in general and is confident Town will eventually climb away from the bottom two and the threat of relegation, once he has a bigger nucleus of players to choose from.

“We’ve been quite unlucky in some of the games,” he said. “There have been games where we have played quite well but we’ve just been conceding silly goals.

“That has been our main problem, and that has been happening because we haven’t had a settled defence. We’re playing well in general but we’re just conceding bad goals.

“It’s frustrating really because I think if we just had a full side out or just one of two missing each week, we’d do okay.

“But everyone has got to deal with it, not just us, so you have just got to get on with it.

“We were in a similar situation last year.

“We had a really bad start and then around Christmas time we went a couple of months pretty much unbeaten and finished eighth in the end, so we know we can do it.”

Round is anticipating another difficult match tomorrow against an improving Slyne side, adding: “They were poor at the start but they pickled up, so it’s going to be a tough game, but hopefully we can get something from it.”