At least three ready to return to boost Diamonds

Diamonds went into Tuesday’s Buildbase FA Trophy second qualifying round replay with league rivals Lincoln United with no fewer than seven members of their first-team squad missing.

Defensive duo Liam Dolman (calf) and Jack Ashton (knee) were both still missing while Tom Lorraine was ruled out due to a virus.

Ross Oulton (knee) remains a long-term casualty and Diamonds were also without top scorer Nabil Shariff and Brad Harris due to one-match bans while Lewis Wilson was cup-tied.

Down to the bare bones, Diamonds were beaten 2-0 as Lincoln advanced into a third qualifying round clash at Vanarama National League North side Kidderminster Harriers.

Boss Andy Peaks is now looking to see who will be back in the ranks as Diamonds get ready to resume their league programme.

Shariff, Harris and Wilson will all come back into the squad but it looks likely that Dolman and Ashton will have to wait for their returns.

“It wasn’t ideal on Tuesday because we had someone like Lewis Leslie who has just come back from injury and played 90 minutes at the weekend,” Peaks said.

“In an ideal world we would have restricted what he had to do in midweek but the circumstances meant we needed him to do it again.

“We put Chris Wreh in there as well and it was a difficult game for him to go straight into but I thought he worked hard.

“But we missed some big players. The likes of Liam Dolman, Jack Ashton, Ross Oulton and Nabil Shariff would all walk into teams in the league above our’s so you are going to miss them when they aren’t available.

“We miss Liam in particularly because he is a strong lad who holds things together for us.

“Throw in the likes of Tom Lorraine, Lewis Wilson and Brad Harris and you have seven massive players who would all have a key role to play for us.

“But we will definitely have Lewis, Nabil and Brad back for the weekend, which is a real boost.

“And we will keep a check on the rest and hope that they are back sooner rather than later.”