Tudors' injury curse

The Tudors boss was without seven players going into Saturday’s National League South match at a strong Ebbsfleet United.

And although his side came back twice to earn a hugely creditable 2-2 draw, two more players picked up knocks to add to the list.

Brennan said: “It’s just bad luck. We had seven out already and two more suffered injuries.

“We had to make four changes for Saturday and there will be more changes for this weekend.

“But it was a much better performance from us on Saturday. Ebbsfleet have a fantastic squad, they are a good side, and I’m sure they’ll be up there at the end of the season.”

That inability to field a settled side has meant a mixed start to the campaign for the Tudors – with the misfortune of running up against two rampant goal machines.

That included Maidenhead’s Dave Tarpey who scored four of his side’s goals in a heavy 5-0 victory over Hemel last Tuesday night.

“We seem to have hit strikers in form in our defeats at Maidenhead and Eastbourne. The first at Eastbourne scored three, then at Maidenhead four,” said Brennan.

This weekend sees Hemel play a double header against the two sides promoted from the Southern League Premier.They take on Poole Town at home on Saturday followed by a trip to Hungerford Town on Bank Holiday Monday.

Both have started their campaigns well, which came as no surprise to the Tudors boss: “We’ve watched Poole, and seven of their players we played against back in the Southern League. They’ve been building for five years, they have that consistency.

“It’s the same with Hungerford, they have been together since they were playing back in the Southern League Division One Midlands league. They know each other.

“Only one team was relegated into this division, whereas a number have been promoted, and they’ve got used to winning. There are no easy games in this league.

“We need to get the same team out every week. Saturday was our fifth game in two weeks and we have six more in the next two and a half weeks. With our injuries and so many games it’s probably a good time to play us!

“But we shall concentrate on one game at a time, get people back playing and I’m confident we shall have a good season.”

This weekend could see Jonny McNamara return from injury with Lewis Taafe and Kyle Connolly also possibly available for selection.