AFC TOTTON have suffered a devastating injury blow ahead of Saturday's FA Trophy preliminary round tie at Tiverton Town.

But it’s not the team on the field who will be affected.

The Stags’ dugout will be missing the key figure of head coach Lee Burch who suffered a double break of his right leg playing in a reserve team fixture at Lymington Town last night.

There were 91 minutes on the clock with Totton leading 3-2 when former Hythe & Dibden boss Burch broke his tibia and fibula. He is due to undergo surgery today at Southampton General Hospital.

Team boss Steve Hollick said: “We were short of a few numbers and Burchy was playing as a favour, so I’m feeling a bit guilty about it.

“He’s doing his UEFA A Licence at the moment and he’s got Guy Whittingham coming down in a couple of weeks to assess him in one of his sessions. It looks like he’ll be doing it on crutches.

“I got sent a photo of him on gas and air with the word ‘ouch’, but he keeps tweeting so he’s obviously doing okay.

“Lee’s been a massive support to me and I’m really going to miss him, especially with a big FA Trophy tie coming up.

“All the lads have been texting and tweeting him, wishing him well, so there’s quite a bit of support for Lee which is nice to see.”

Club chairman Andy Straker also wished Burch a speedy recovery, saying: “His work with AFC Totton on the training pitch since joining the club has been second to none. We look forward to his return.”

If there’s one person well-placed to offer Burch support, it’s Totton forward Nathaniel Sherborne who himself suffered a broken leg three years ago.

Now back to his very best, Sherborne scored twice in Tuesday’s 4-0 win over rock-bottom Bashley, making it nine points out of the last 12 for the Stags in the Southern One South & West.

It was only 1-0 until the 67th minute and Hollick admitted: “It was a strange game. Everyone expected us to pummel them, but they were hard to break down. The crowd got a bit down on the performance and that transferred to the players and we let Bashley get into it a bit.

“There were some choice words said at half-time and, once we'd got our second goal, everyone relaxed.

“Young Jake Rawkins and Matty Brewer came on and linked up well for Mike Gosney’s goal.

“Jack Attrill covered when Marc Diaper was injured earlier in the season. These young lads aren’t letting anyone down.”