SWINDON Supermarine may go into this weekend’s clash with Clevedon Town full of confidence after hitting the goal trail this week – but boss Dave Webb will be forced to plug a few holes in his back line.

Marine bounced back to winning ways as they thrashed Cinderford Town 4-1 in the Red Insure Cup on Tuesday night but, ahead of Saturday’s trip to Somerset, the Webb’s Wood Stadium chief has a number of injury headaches.

Skipper Dave Bampton is likely to be missing with a hip problem whilst Marcus Johnson-Schuster is still out with a foot injury.

To worsen Marine’s mini-defensive crisis, Kyle Lapham’s injury comeback ended in disaster last weekend as he was forced off against Wimborne, with the full-back now set for another lengthy lay-off.

“I had the back four out that I probably would have wanted to start the season with (against Fleet) and a week later, it’s gone completely the other way,” said Webb.

“Kyle Lapham was making his comeback after a long-term injury against Wimborne and now he’s torn his calf.

“He’s also had a bit of an ankle problem, and he’s been considering having surgery, so we’re going to lose him for two or three months now, which is a shame because he’s a senior player and a good right-back.

“You’re always going to get injuries but we’ve just been very unlucky with them.

“Young Cameron Pirie has played in a few games for us over the last month and done very well, so he’ll come in this weekend.

“We’re going in to the Clevedon game off the back of a good performance against Cinderford, where we showed that we can defend properly, we can score goals, and we can keep possession as a team.

“Anyone who’s seen us will know that we’ve been playing well in the last few weeks but we need to make sure that we start picking up points in the league to start climbing the table.”

Elsewhere on the injury front, striker Dan Martin is a major doubt for the Clevedon game after picking up a knock to his knee in the win over Clevedon, but midfielder Joe Shepherd returns from suspension.

The Marine manager was delighted to see forward Ryan Stanners break his duck for the club with a brace in Tuesday’s cup win, particularly after the youngster’s open-goal miss in last weekend’s Fleet defeat.

Webb said: “Nobody was more pleased for Ryan than me. He took his first goal and his second goal very well.

“I saw something in him last season and he’s going to be a very good player for Swindon Supermarine.”