Injury crisis threatens Horsham’s FA Cup hopes

Tuesday night’s 2-0 defeat by Redhill was worryingly their second loss in three days.

It was also a nightmare for injuries with three more added to the list with Ryan Marriott, Tony Nwachukwu and Billy Joe King all hobbling off.

They joined strikers Jamie Cade and Billy Dunn who were already out of the team with injuries.

It couldn’t come at a worse time with an invaluable £4,500 prize money at stake for the winners of the second qualifying round tie.

Coincidentally Hornets are already familiar with their opponents as they lost to them twice last season and have already met them in the league on August 17 when they lost 2-1 away.

Colbran said: “They are a physical side who are very direct. I thought they were lucky to get a 2-1 win at their place to be honest and we should have got more out of the game than we did.

“Last year it was a different story, we had a completely different squad. But we might be thin on the ground on Sunday as well.

“We’ll have to get it tactically right and if we do we can go on and win it.”

Colbran is hoping front-two Dunn and Cade could be back in time for Sunday.

He said: “Billy is suffering from a knee injury and we rested him on Tuesday as a precaution as we thought it better he misses one week rather than play on it, make it worse and be out for four weeks.

“Jamie is getting better every day. It’s good we have an extra day so he’s got a chance.

“Ryan is very doubtful as he has 6-7 stitches in his gashed leg. However you never know as sometimes with a gash you can pad it up and play.”

Colbran reckoned this Sunday’s game being an FA Cup tie would help lift his squad which has taken a dip after this week’s twin defeats which ended an encouraging eight-game unbeaten run.

He said: “We felt we didn’t create enough chances in the final third and we weren’t good enough.

“We didn’t finish our chances in both games. The fact it’s an FA Cup game is a Godsend as it might have been difficult to pick them (the players) up for a league game. They will pick it up themselves.

“We know how big the game is - it’s massive for the club financially and it’s good for the playing budget as well.

“We are going into the game looking to win it obviously and we’ll do everything we can to win it.

“We’ve got to to have a look at how we can change things to get us a win.”