Whyteleafe boss John Fowler will not be forced into signing new names despite an ever-growing injury list.

Leafe were without the injured Jensen Grant, Louis Hollingsworth, Tom Pratt and Jason Henry for the ultimately unsuccessful Ryman Division One South trip to Merstham on Tuesday.

All four are not expected to be fit for this weekend’s FA Trophy visit of Dunstable Town (kick-off 3pm).

Roscoe DSane was also missing on Tuesday night, but Fowler confirmed he will be available for the weekend.

Fowler said: “It’s a weird one, people at the club have been saying we need to strengthen the squad, but I have to say: ‘Are you going to give the money to strengthen it?’

“And if I did get new players in and all of a sudden my players come back from injury, I get into the scenario where everyone has agreed terms, and if I leave them out they get annoyed and go and find a new club – it’s a difficult one to manage.”

Click here for reaction to Tuesday night's 2-0 defeat at Merstham

He added: “But even with them guys missing on Saturday, we’ll still have five on the bench.

“They may not be as strong as some of the players we are missing, but I think financially we’re not in a position to go out and get players of the quality needed to replace our injured players.”

Dunstable Town, of the Premier Division of the Southern League, are without a win in six games, but a bright start to the season of six wins in nine games, means they remain in the top 10.

Fowler said: “We want to go as far as we can in the Trophy because you get the chance to pit yourselves against the big boys of non-League football.

“Personally, it is massive and I want to get as far as possible, to promote the club and get the financial reward as well.”

As an aside, Fowler completed the Dublin maraton on Monday in four hours 43 minutes 22 seconds - and while he was pleased to have completed the route, injury seriously curtailed his time.

He said: "I was on course to beat my time at the Brighton marathon in April [3.59:19] but I picked up an injury around 16 miles and had to walk a lot of the final 10 miles or so.

"But it was still a great day and really enjoyable to be a part of. Everyone gets involved and a lot of money is raised for charity [in Fowler's case Cancer Research]."