Injury crisis deepens for Lancaster City ahead of FA cup tie against Bury AFC

The Dolly Blues were already without a number of key individuals for the home clash against NPL Premier Division leaders South Shields.

And Fell was forced into a couple of enforced changes against the Mariners as defenders Calen Gallagher-Allison and Sam Bailey had to be withdrawn.

Having to put square pegs in rounds holes, City found themselves 2-0 behind in the first half and although they rallied in the second half, they were unable to prevent their opponents moving four points clear at the top of the table.

Fell has managed to bolster his squad this with the acquisition of Henri Ogunby who made his debut as a first-half substitute for Gallagher-Allison. And Fell admitted he may have to dip in the transfer market again.

"You couldn’t write it,” he said. “We have nine players out of a squad of 21 who are out injured – and medium to long-term injuries as well.

"It is killing us because we can’t make substitutions when we want to make them or in the areas that we want to make them. We are just fire-fighting. Now we are caught in this horrible position where lads who are not injured are having to play more – we can’t rest them, or change or tinker.

"We can’t train at the moment. i think it’s 10 days since we last trained – last week we gave them the week off because the risk is you pick up more knocks but the risk of not training is that you look sluggish like we did in the first half.

"So I am caught between a rock and hard place because I am genuinely unsure that we will have 13 fit bodies for this weekend.”

City take a breather from league duties when they take on Bury AFC in the FA Cup second round of qualifying at Giant Axe on Saturday.

"We have got to stick at it, we’ve got to be positive,” said Fell. “Based on the second half on Tuesday, we could have got something.

"It will help us massively if we can stay in the FA Cup.”