By Blair Ferguson
Dorchester Town's FA Trophy Third Round Qualifying match against Gosport Borough has more significance than most, with the club having massive financial issues.
Phil Simkin, Dorchester Town manager, had to register as a player last month at 60 years-of-age to make sure the Dorset team had a full bench.
And he knows that whilst a run in The Trophy can help raise funds for the club, with an ever-changing squad it will be a difficult task.
"It's getting down to Saturday mornings and seeing who we've got sometimes," revealed Simkin.
"I've got half the side that is actually playing for nothing; I've even got two players travelling from the Isle of Wight to play for nothing.
The FA Trophy
Winning clubs in the Third Round Qualifying receive £4000 from The FA's prize fund
"It's very difficult week in and week out, we've lost an awful lot of players and we've just lost another one in Neil Martin, who's gone to Weymouth so it's not been easy."
Despite it being such a struggle for Simkin's men, who currently sit bottom of the Southern League, he knows he is fortunate to have a team to play in the weekend's fixture.
He added: "I'm lucky that the remaining players are really honest lads, I've used every contact I've got to put a side together and compete week in and week out and we do compete, but we're on a run of three defeats at the moment and obviously that's not easy to deal with."
However, despite the difficulties facing the club, Simkin sees The FA Trophy as a chance to help the club both on and off the pitch and is prepared for the match.
"It's worth £4000 and we could use that," said Simkin.
"I went to Gosport earlier this week and watched them play Eastleigh and we played Gosport earlier in the season and got a 1-1 draw.
"But they've strengthened considerably since then so it's going to be a very difficult game for us."
