Knaresborough Town boss Rob Hunter has 'never known anything like' club's current injury crisis

The Manse Lane club, who visit Birtley Town in the FA Vase this Saturday, were without eight members of their first-team squad for last weekend's 4-0 home defeat to Staveley Miners Welfare.

That loss was Boro’s sixth in succession, a run of form that has contributed to the club dropping from the top end of the NCEL Division One table to 16th place.

And Hunter says that the sheer number of players he has been without has naturally taken its toll on results.

“It’s an absolute nightmare at the moment. I’ve never known anything like it,” he said.

“There isn’t a club anywhere that could cope with having eight or nine players from its first team squad missing at the same time. It’s just too many at once, results are always going to suffer.

“We’ve actually played some decent football in spells. We had a really good 25-30 minutes on Saturday, but that’s not enough to win you games of football.

“At the moment we seem to be getting one player back, but then we lose another straight away. It’s very difficult, but all we can do is get on with it.”

Boro travel to Birtley Town in the second qualifying round of the FA Vase this Saturday and Hunter will at least be able to call upon the services of Sam Cook, one of three senior centre-halves he has been without in recent weeks.

“Sam Cook coming back in is good news and we should also have Tom Dugdale and Calum Ward available, so that’s three I didn’t have last week. We’re heading in the right direction,” he added.

“Birtley are good going forward and play with a high press. It will be a tough game, it’s definitely winnable if we perform.

"That's the thing with the FA Vase, there's nobody from a higher level for us to worry about, so we have to be looking to progress through the rounds."