Joe Dowley has a defensive problem this weekend

Joe Dowley is frantically trying to plug the gaps in Sittingbourne’s defence ahead of the visit of Corinthian-Casuals to Bourne Park this Saturday.

Sittingbourne have won just once in the past two months and are now fifth from bottom in Ryman Division One South following a 4-1 defeat at Worthing last Saturday.

“Corinthian are four points ahead of us and we need to get some distance between ourselves and the relegation places,” Dowley said.

“We’re missing a centre-half for Saturday and I’m ringing around, so with any luck we’ll be able to get somebody in, but we were poor defensively [at Worthing].

“We were out of the game by half-time. We put a few chances together in the second half and Richard Atkins, who is on loan from Folkestone, did well but as a team we just didn’t defend well enough.”

Against a Rebels side chasing a play-off place Sittingbourne were 3-0 down after just 29 minutes.

The home side added a fourth and the only consolation for the visitors came when Atkins turned in a Luke Coleman cross to score his first goal for the club in the 81st minute.

Atkins is available for the Corinthian game and Dowley is hopeful of keep him for longer than the initial four-game deal agreed with Folkestone.

Photo by IGOR KUPCO