THERE could not be a worse time for an injury jinx at Worcester City -- but we must deal with it rather than moan about it.

Injuries happen at every club, although I was slightly lucky last season as there were very few problems during the league run-in.

We have now got to show all our strength to come through it. These sorts of things test you and our squad is being tested.

Three players -- Nick Colley, Graham Hyde and George Clegg -- were missing against Hu-cknall due to illness and injury.

It meant we started with another new combination in midfield.

I'm hopeful that Nick and Graham will be back for our game at Moor Green this Saturday.

Graham suffered from 'flu but I'm expecting him to be OK. We must be careful with Nick, because he has a slight hamstring problem, but the signs look encouraging.

That is the good news, but we are now without Les Hines and possibly Jai Stanley too.

Les pulled his thigh during the match and we are not sure how long he will be out.

Depending on how serious it is, it could be as long as four, five or six weeks. That is the worst case scenario.

It is a huge blow because Les is an important player for us. He gives us that balance. We don't really have anybody who is comfortable playing in that position on the left.

Shabir Khan and Liam McDonald are both uncomfortable there. Cleggy could do the job, but he is still injured with strained medial ligaments to his knee. He has just started jogging again, so he might only be a couple of weeks away.

It causes a problem when we lose someone and haven't got other people to slot in.

We were quite fortunate on Saturday in that we lost three midfielders but had three others that went straight in.

Jai came back into the side with Tom Warmer and did alright. He got on the ball, tried to open things up and make opportunities for others. He probably had more of the ball than anybody else.

Again, it was another disappointing defeat. We deserved at least a point against Hucknall, but we've been punished from an error inside our own half.

I understand that one or two supporters are getting disgruntled. After our good finish to last season, people thought we are definitely going to get promoted this year. We are all disappointed with the start we've got off to. But if there's any criticism to be made, then lay it at my door rather than the players.

I'm not feeling any pressure because I know things will come right. If I'm not doing my job properly or being serious about it, then it will never turn for us.

But I know it will turn. We are doing all the right things. The players are being looked after and we prepare well for games. We will get better.

Finally, we've drawn Bemerton Heath Harlequins at home in the FA Cup.

They are unknown but we will treat them with the utmost respect. I've seen teams from that sort of standard cause upsets and we cannot afford to be careless in our approach.

The FA Cup is a nice distraction for us and a decent run could help lift us and give us confidence. There are three rounds to negotiate before the first proper round, so there's incentives to do well.