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Ashford manager Danny Kedwell says he’s been able to name his strongest XI just once all season.
The Nuts & Bolts have suffered a catalogue of injuries, making it difficult to get a settled side.
They have also had suspensions to deal with, forcing Kedwell to sign players on dual-registration to make up the numbers.
It’s not an ideal scenario for Kedwell, who would love nothing more than to get his best XI on the park.
“I had it once, I think, when we beat Walton & Hersham in the FA Trophy,” said Kedwell, whose side are still eighth in Isthmian South East despite the upheaval.
“I’m not making excuses but we’re just constantly fighting for players.
“We’ve never got a full squad. It’s mental and the thing is I said at the beginning, I always want to go with 17/18 players but I’ve had to sign so many players just to fill my bench up and get a squad out.
“I’ve had loads of dual-registrations just to help me out for numbers, which I hate doing.
“It doesn’t sit right with me but we’ve got to do it.
“I know people have got games in hand but I’d love to see where we’d be if I’d had a full squad all season with the players we’ve got.
“You’d be saying, ‘what a squad that is’.
“The trouble is we’ve had two, three, four, five, six missing every single week.
“When you’re managing, you want to be able to look at the bench and go, ‘I’ve got five subs who can change a game’.
“I’ve never had that.”
Ashford, who visit Sevenoaks this Saturday (3pm), were on the wrong end of several big decisions in a 3-2 home defeat by Three Bridges at the weekend.
Gary Lockyer opened the scoring on his return from suspension but Noel Leighton levelled.
The Nuts & Bolts were reduced to 10 men when Barry Fuller was controversially dismissed for handball in his attempts to block a shot, with Ben Holden scoring the resultant penalty.
Mike West made it 2-2 in the second half but Kevin Rivera scored a late winner for the visitors after Ashford had two big penalty appeals waved away by referee Richard Joss.
Kedwell, an unused substitute, was sent off in the aftermath, receiving successive yellow cards, the first for a bench offence.
“I never like blaming referees,” said Kedwell.
“The first half wasn’t good enough. We know it wasn’t. We weren’t at the races.
“Barry getting sent off is just crazy.
“He’s come out sliding to block a shot, it’s hit his arm, which is a penalty, but it’s not a straight red.
“He’s not dived on the goalline, it was outside the six-yard box with a player behind him but the referee gives a straight red.
“We get the game back to 2-2 and there was only one winner in the second half.
“We did magnificently with 10 men and then we had two penalty shouts for handball.
“The last one was ridiculous. Gary’s lobbed it over the bloke’s head, he’s caught the ball over his head to stop it going through.
“It’s a penalty but he doesn’t give it, and they go up the other and score, and then I get sent off.
“It wasn’t even me who shouted anything out, it was one of my staff, and he’s gone, ‘I’ve got to book you because you’re the manager’.
“I went, ‘Mate, you haven’t got to worry about that, you’ve got to worry about your performance’ and he’s shown me a second yellow and sent me off.”
Luke Moore, Ashford’s new loan signing from Dorking, made his debut as a second-half substitute.
He’s building match fitness after months on the sidelines.
Kedwell said: “He struggled for the first 10 minutes where it was his first game in 20 weeks but he got his second wind.
“He’s going to have another two training sessions this week and he’s going to be a great player for us.”