ROCKS REVIEW: Promotion's all that matters after Trophy exit

The Rocks aim to make up for their FA Trophy exit by going from strength to strength in their bid to get back to the Ryman League's top flight.

Their Trophy run ended in a 2-0 third qualifying round defeat at Hampton and Richmond on Tuesday night.

Now they can focus more firmly on the league campaign as they aim to keep pace with the leading pack in Ryman one south.

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And they will be praying injuries to key players picked up during the Trophy run do not derail their promotion bid.

They welcome struggling Horsham YMCA to Nyewood Lane for a Sussex derby on Saturday without centre-half Stuart Axten and they’re sweating on the fitness of skipper Michael Birmingham and striker Luke Nightingale.

Axten is out for three weeks with ankle ligament damage, while Birmingham aggravated a calf injury in the Hampton replay and Nightingale took a whack on the leg.

They’re still without Phil Turner, whose hamstring problem will take another two or three weeks to clear up, and d full-back Matt Whitehead is away on England Colleges trials this weekend.

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The Rocks are hopeful of bringing a centre-half in on loan to cover Axten’s absence and are also toying with the idea of bringing an ex-Rocks player back to the club to swell numbers.

They’ll need all the bodies they can get over the coming weeks. Saturday’s game is the start of a scheduled run of nine in 31 days – and eight of those are in the league.

They’ve played five games fewer than some of their Ryman rivals but are still in fifth place, so a good run of results between now and Christmas will set them up nicely for a big promotion push in 2011.

Joint boss Jamie Howell said the Trophy exit was disappointing but being able to focus on the league was a good thing.

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“That’s always been our number-one priority and now we have a hectic run of games.

“Say what you like about games in hand but you can have too many – as we found to our cost at the end of last season. We want to get games played and get points on the board.”

Howell is wary of talk that the visit of Horsham YMCA – who are bottom of the table and have conceded 58 goals in 17 league outings – is a home banker.

“It’s a Sussex derby and they’ll be up for it. Our home form hasn’t always been as good as it should be this season and we’ll need to be on our toes.

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“But if our attitude is right, we have the footballing ability to win.”

Fellow joint manager Darin Killpartrick said they’d treat YMCA with the same respect as every other opponent.

“We’ll be taking them seriously. We’re desperate to get back into our league programme and show that we deserve to be where we are in the league,” he said.

The Rocks are on the trail of a centre-half to fill in for Axten.

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James Crane did the job at Hampton but is not seen as the long-term answer and, with Jon Marzetti still struggling with a virus, he will be needed at full-back.

Birmingham and Nightingale will be assessed at training tonight. Dean Maynard would be the obvious stand-in for Nightingale, while Kane Wills or Matt Wood could slot into Birmingham’s engine-room role.

County-league side Seaford visit Nyewood Lane in the Sussex Senior Cup next Tuesday and Howell denied it was a game they could do without.

“I like the county cup,” he said. “It’s a real chance for us to get to another cup final, and it will also be an opportunity to give run-outs to players who’ve not been playing too much.”