Folkestone Invicta manager Jay Saunders racing against the clock to shore up defence in time for weekend after Jamie Fielding joins Kevin Lokko and Dan Quick on injury list

Folkestone manager Jay Saunders admits he faces a race against time to solve their defensive crisis.

Invicta are without three centre-backs after Jamie Fielding came off injured in the first half of their defeat at Tonbridge on Tuesday night.

Fielding joins skipper Kevin Lokko and Dan Quick in the treatment room and leaves Saunders with a major defensive headache ahead of Saturday’s trip to Chesham in National League South.

“A couple of weeks back, we had probably too many defenders,” admitted Saunders.

“Now we’ve lost Lokko, we’ve lost Quick for another month and we’ve lost Jamie.

“Before it was that we had no forwards. Now we’re getting all the forwards back and we’ve gone the other route.

“Our frontline’s all pretty much available and I’m leaving people out like Aaron Cosgrave. But on the flip side of that, we’ve ended up with no defenders.

“I’ve got to do something for Saturday. We can’t go into that game with what we’ve got, we just can’t.

“It’s hard because ultimately if we go out and sign a couple of centre-halves and then a couple of them come back in a couple of weeks, all of a sudden… it’s a difficult one.

“It’s a juggling act and I don’t want to go with too many loans but we’ve got to look at that area because to go into Saturday without Jamie Fielding, Kevin Lokko and Dan Quick is a big ask.”

Saunders has got scope to bring in reinforcements to help solve their defensive issues. Without extra options, he’s being forced into positional changes across the side.

“It’s hard,” added the Folkestone boss.

“You’re not just taking Jamie off and putting a centre-half in on Tuesday.

“We’re having to change the whole shape and put three or four players out of position and that becomes difficult.

“I’m a big believer I