PAUL Braithwaite is hopeful that his Royal Wootton Bassett Town team will be able to overcome their injury woes when they put local pride on the line this weekend.

Skipper Steve Yeardley will miss Saturday’s Wiltshire Senior Cup second round clash with New College, whilst the likes of Steve Robertson, Sam Packer and Matt Cheetham are also injury doubts, with Adam Corcoran suspended for good measure.

Bassett, who overcame Wiltshire League outfit Ludgershall Sports in the first round of the county cup last month, could be without a quintet of pivotal players but manager Braithwaite is hoping that they’ll still have enough about them to overcome the challenge of Mark Teasdale’s sprightly students.

“We could be missing five key players, which is a blow,” said the Bassett boss.

“Steve Robertson is 70-30 with a knee problem, Sam Packer has a quad injury and is probably 50-50 and Matt Cheetham’s a doubt too because he picked up a knee knock on Wednesday (against Tytherington Rocks).

“If they’re all out, then we’ll just have to deal with that because the Wiltshire Senior Cup is one that you always want to do well in and that’s something they believe in here.

“It’s a competition with a lot of pride to it. Local clubs always want to go as far as they can and teams that win it, like Highworth last year, are always really happy to do that.

“With academy sides like New College, you always expect them to play the right way. I imagine they’ll play the ball out from the back.

“But we’ve just got to focus on ourselves and what we can do in the team.”

Goalkeeper Curtis Meare returned to action following a dislocated shoulder in Wednesday’s 2-1 victory over Tytherington Rocks in the second round of the Hellenic League Floodlit Cup.

Tyler Sheppard's first-half opener and a Rocks own goal sealed the visitors’ progress.

Braithwaite added: “The Floodlit Cup isn’t a big thing for some teams – Highmoor-Ibis took their U18s to Carterton on Tuesday.

“But the team we put out was the one that would have played anyway. Some guys that haven’t played too much this season got a game and we’re happy with the result.”