More new faces on U’s radar

The player-manager was speaking to four players in the middle of this week and hopes to have one of them in place for the visit of table-topping Billericay Town today (Saturday).

Ray, pictured, said: “I’ve got one from the Conference Premier, two Conference South players and another young lad from the Conference South who hasn’t played much football.”

Ray was far from happy after suffering back-to-back 2-0 defeats away to Leatherhead in the Ryman League Premier Division on Saturday and at home to Bury Town in an Alan Boon Ryman League Cup quarter-final on Tuesday night.

“We’ve been really, really poor lately,” he continued. “I’ve been disappointed for the last couple of weeks to be fair. Defensively we’ve been really, really poor, making silly schoolboy mistakes.

“We’re not making teams work hard enough for any of their goals and we’ve got a very weak mentality. But it’s all over the pitch. We’re not looking solid at the back and we’re not looking like we’re going to create any chances.”

Tamer Tuna, a 20-year-old striker who has made three first team appearances for Charlton Athletic and represented Turkey at under-19 level, made his debut against Bury, but got little chance to show what he could do.

Having picked up just four points from a possible 21 since the end of November, United find themselves in the final safe spot of fifth-from-bottom and just three points above a Leatherhead side which has two games in hand.

Nick Gonsalves and Matt Whitehead will return after being cup-tied in midweek, Ray and central defensive partner Josh Jirbandey are hoping to be 100 per cent, Jack Dixon should be fit and Ross Sutton is rated 50-50.

TODAY’S SENIOR FOOTBALL FIXTURES (ALL 3PM):

Ryman League, Premier Division: Hastings Utd v Billericay Town.

Sussex County League, Division 1: Redhill v Rye Utd; Sidley Utd v Lancing.

Division 2: Littlehampton Town v Little Common; Mile Oak v Westfield; Wick v Bexhill Utd.