Ian Culverhouse faces a known problem as King’s Lynn Town prepares for the National League’s final weekday home game.
A combination of injuries and players on leave has pushed the manager’s imagination to the limit.
Now add Kyle Callan-McFadden and Cameron King – both doubt the Stockport County’s visit on Tuesday (starts at 7 p.m.).
Callan-McFadden suffered a shoulder injury that forced him to take an hour off during a typical fighting performance against Dagenham & Redbridge on Saturday.
Influential midfielder King lasted only 16 minutes and breathing problems forced an immediate retreat.
Culverhouse was philosophical after losing to the daggers over the weekend, although he’s well practiced at the art this year.
Cameron King had difficulty breathing during the Linnets’ loss to Dagenham & Redbridge
– Photo credit: Ian Burt
“We’re a scratched team – we have to stick together,” he said. “We lost Kingy and we could have lost Macca too, so every man is on the pump.
“He (Callan-McFadden) landed hard on it so we have to rate him for Tuesday so it’s Touch and Go for now.
“We’ll be fine – we’ll show up again on Tuesday and try.”
If Callan-McFadden doesn’t make it, Culverhouse will have to give up his defensive line-up of the last couple of games after playing three center-backs and being pushed into the roles of full-backs Rob Howard and Tyler Denton.
It would leave the somewhat inexperienced couple Tai Fleming and Elkan Baggott in the middle. Baggott is likely to play for Ipswich Town in the FA Youth Cup next Friday as well, so there may be doubts about his engagement tonight and certainly at Maidstone next Saturday.
Stockport are fourth in the table after beating Boreham Wood 3-0 away at the weekend, extending the unbeaten run to eleven games.
The Linnets were beaten 4-0 at Stockport two weeks ago and must fix the mistakes that have created goals – a dozen in their last four games.
“You can pick holes in anything,” said Culverhouse. “You know it was a bad day today.
“We have a team full of loanees and patched players – we only tick them if we keep going.”
