Hereford 0 King's Lynn Town 0

Adam Lakeland says he expect his players to step up and fill the hole left by injured striker Jonny Margetts.

The 30-year-old could be sidelined for up to 10 weeks with a back injury – despite being given the all-clear.

Margetts injured his back when he collided with an upright during Lynn’s home defeat by Curzon Ashton a fortnight ago. He missed the FA Cup win over Cheshunt, but Lakeland was confident he would be fit for Saturday’s trip to Hereford.

But then came the blow.

“As we all know, he got injured against Curzon, came off about 30, 35 minutes in, went to the hospital on the Monday for an X-ray which at the time was a precautionary measure. He was given the all-clear by them, no breaks, then eight days later, Tuesday of this week, they called him back and said he’s got fractures in his second, third and fourth vertebrae, which probably sums up the NHS for us all, but that’s a topic for a different day.

“It's a massive blow for Jonny and it's a big blow for us, because he's a big player for us, he’s obviously our leading goal scorer and to have him missing now for probably eight weeks, 10 weeks, it's going to a blow.

“But we’ve got a deep squad and other people have got to step up and I’m sure he’ll be back out there as quickly as he possibly can be.”

If the cavalry doesn’t provide sufficient cover, then there is the option of dipping into the loan market.

“We might have to,” said Lakeland. “If I’m not happy with what I see from people and we don't start scoring, I might have to, because we’re here to win games of football.

“We haven't scored too many goals in recent games and we're well aware of that.

“I think in all the other games where we haven’t scored, we have created opportunities. But today we didn’t really create too much because I think we failed to get our passing game going.

“If we're creating chances, there's no real concern, because I’m confident we’ll convert, but if we're not creating chances in the forthcoming games, obviously that's when you start to worry as a manager, so we'll just see how we get on in the next few weeks. It is up to the players to step up in his absence.”

 

Hereford: Chapman, Robinson, Howkins, Preston, Hudson, Matwasa (Tilt 78), D’ath, Campbell (Teixeira 81), Cessay, Rooney (Willliams 78), Rose. Subs not used: Horton, Derricott.

King’s Lynn Town: Jones, Sass, McFadden, Taylor, Crowe (Ronan 78), Walker, Johnson, Crane (Barnes 66), Hmami, McCammon (Cybulski 66), Omotayo (Hughes 84). Subs not used: Wilson.

Attendance: 2,491