THE celebrations after the FA Cup win against St Blazey were obviously affected by the disappointment of Mark Owen's injury.

There will be a temptation for him to feel sorry for himself and for the club to feel sorry for itself but there is no time or room to feel like that.

Irrespective of what player this had happened to, we would have to get on with it and not dwell on the situation.

We've had our fair share of serious injuries at the club in recent years with Andy Ellis breaking a leg and Chris Greenman breaking a collarbone and suffering a knee problem.

Now we have this double fracture with Mark and if nothing else we are keeping the hospitals busy.

I had a similar injury to Mark except lower down and to be honest it was a nightmare -- I broke my ankle playing for Everton against Coventry on October 6 and played my next match on October 5 a year later.

My situation was different to Mark's because I was 25 at the time and had just got into the Football League and didn't have much time to waste.

His situation is that he's still got everything in front of him.

He was delighted to get his future at the club sorted out but no sooner was the ink dry on the contract then this happens and it is an example of how quickly things can change in football.

There is no reason to doubt that he won't come back but it takes time and it means we are without a player that is a prized asset.

When these injuries occur it is never at the right time and you just have to get on with it and push on with the job -- the game doesn't wait for you and we just have to stay positive.

Obviously we still want to bring players in but I must admit that we didn't anticipate it would be to replace Mark.

But we have a couple of options up front one of which is Darren Middleton whose preferred position is up front and we need to see how that develops.

The emphasis on what type of player we bring in could shift and we will see how it goes. But the truth is clubs don't want to let players go at this stage for reasons that we wouldn't either which is cup runs, cover and keeping the squad up to strength.

Tiverton Town visit St George's Lane on Saturday and this is a game we don't want to lose because it is hard enough staying in touch at the top without the cup matches.

We're 11 points behind Havant & Waterlooville who have made a tremendous start and have managed to not concede goals while also shading games.

Tiverton were promoted last year and have enjoyed a rapid rise and they seem a buoyant club trying to establish themselves.

Promoted teams are often harder to play earlier in the season than after the New Year as we've already seen with Newport Isle of Wight so we will need to approach the game with the right attitude.

That is also the case for our fourth qualifying round FA Cup clash with Belper Town. If we show the same application as in our previous games against St Blazey and Barnstaple we have every chance of going through.