Kimberley MW on FA Vase mission at Sandbach United as they aim to make the hat for round three

Joint boss Graham Furnell said: “We have a supporters bus coming along to cheer the lads on to hopefully repeat last season's achievement of getting through to the third round of the national competition.

“Again the physio will probably be the busiest person at the club this week with hopefully a few players returning for Saturday.

“It's been a reoccurring theme for most of the season that we've been unable to name the same 11 due to unprecedented injuries right across every position of the pitch.

“The curse struck again last Saturday with keeper Matt White pulling up in the warm-up,”

However, Kimberley have moved fast to bolster their squad.

“The injuries have led to us bringing in an exciting young talent, George Atwal, from Mickleover Sports on loan for the rest of the season,” he said.

“Another signing we made last week was Kai Moore, a player we have closely monitored for a couple of seasons now.

“This was good timing with James Shaw out of action after picking up a knock in the Sherwood game a couple of weeks ago.”

Kimberley were certainly made to work hard for their 2-1 win over Leicester Nirvana in UCL Premier North last weekend.

“The message at full time was very simple - we dodged a bullet today and were we short of the standard expected and required and, indeed, what we had previously set ourselves,” said Furnell.

“That said the victory took us up to sixth in the table and, although it's very pleasing to be there, we're under no illusions that it's early days and we still have to play the bigger more fancied teams in the league.”

Trailing 1-0 at the break to a Kyle Tott goal, Kimberley made half-time changes against Nirvana and within three minutes of the restart were awarded a penalty, put away by Kai Moore.

Then just after the hour mark debutant Atwal slammed home a rebound from inside the six yard box to win it.

On Tuesday night Kimberley were beaten on penalties at Gedling Town after a 1-1 draw in the Notts FA Senior Cup.

New Eastwood CFC boss Nick Labbate saw his side ship 11 goals in four days as Saturday's 5-0 home defeat by Newark & Sherwood United was followed by a 6-1 hammering at Sherwood Colliery on Tuesday, Isaac Morledge with a first senior goal.

It was a 10th defeat in a row, eight under Labbate.

On Saturday they head for a big local derby away at Selston, who hope to name a new manager this week.

Last Saturday Selston were beaten 4-0 at home by rampant Sherwood Colliery.