EARLY-SEASON injuries to skipper Joe Partington and the versatile Luke Coulson have led Eastleigh to deduce that their squad isn’t as deep as they thought.

With 12 new signings arriving during the summer, the Spitfires looked set to sail smoothly into the new Vanarama National League campaign.

But the right-back position is a cause for concern for tomorrow's home game against Dover Athletic (Tuesday, 7.45pm) and manager Chris Todd has not ruled out bringing in another new face.

“We’ve got 20 senior players, including two goalkeepers, and now we’ve lost two right-backs.

“You think you’ve got a big squad, but clearly this shows we haven’t,” rued Todd.

“It’s the same at left-back. We’ve only got one and there’s no cover for Greener (Michael Green).

“We might have to put David Pipe or Connor Essam in at right-back tomorrow or maybe we’ll get some more bodies in.

“We had no injures in pre-season and now it’s all happening.”

For Coulson, it’s been a season of frustration so far. Having missed the first two league games with a bad ankle, he returned in place of Achilles victim Partington in Saturday’s desperately unlucky 2-1 defeat at Tranmere only to bow out with a shoulder muscle problem.

Centre-back Essam also missed Tranmere with a cut on the back of foot, but he may be available tonight.

Reflecting on Saturday’s defeat, heartbreakingly settled by a 94th-minute James Norwood strike, Todd said: “It’s hard to accept when you’ve worked so hard to get a point. You don’t expect that in the dying seconds.

“I thought it was a very professional performance, but there’s a lot more to come from us for sure. We've got to get a bit more fluent football going, but there's a lot of new players and it takes time.”

Tonight marks a rapid return to the Silverlake for striker Ross Lafayette who signed for Dover last week after parting company with Eastleigh.

He made his mark for the Whites on Saturday, scoring one and making one in a 2-0 win over North Ferriby.