KIDDERMINSTER Harriers' manager Ian Britton is today suffering a massive selection headache after having his preparations for tomorrows home Nationwide League Division Three clash with Rochdale devastated by illness and injuries this week.

The players returned to Aggborough today after being told to keep away for a couple of days in a bid to stop a stomach bug from spreading.

Up to eight members of Harriers squad have been laid low by the bug which is forcing Britton to delay his team selection until shortly before kick-off tomorrow (3pm).

He will, however, again be without giant central defender Abdou Sall who is still two weeks away from recovering from an ankle injury.

Defender Adie Smith will also be missing also because of hamstring trouble.

Midfielder Sean Parrish is suffering from a similar injury and is re-garded as having a "50/50" chance of being fit to face second in the table Rochdale.

Britton, meanwhile, is urging his players to keep their feet firmly on the ground after their 2-0 triumph at Southend United on Tuesday night which stretched their unbeaten league run to six matches.

Confident

He said: "Its only one game we won and the lads have been confident anyway because we haven't been losing.

Q"I feel we could have done better at Aggborough with a bit of luck though we didn't play well at all against Boston.

"But there was no luck involved at Southend and we could have had more goals.

"The players have bounced back from the defeat at Nottingham Forest and are really starting to believe in themselves."

Tomorrow's clash enables central defender Mark Clyde and midfielder John Melligan to make their home debuts following their loan move to Aggborough from Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Ligament

Melligan, who is expected to be fit after tweaking a knee liga-ment, and Clyde both made an impression in their opening two matches against Scunthorpe and Southend, justifying Britton's deci-ion to take full advan-tage of the loan system.

He said: "I think loan signings are going to be so important because obviously we cannot af-ford to sign players long term due to the money situation.

"Loan signings we can always have a look at and get players in if and when we want them," said Britton.

FORMCAST: Harriers to chalk up another draw with a 1-1 deadlock.