WROXHAM team boss Damian Hilton has promised he will recruit players out of the Yachtsmen's rampant reserves only in the case of first-team emergencies.

WROXHAM team boss Damian Hilton has promised he will recruit players out of the Yachtsmen's rampant reserves only in the case of first-team emergencies.

“These lads are a great prospect for winning the Anglian Combination Premier title for the club and it would be quite wrong in my view to weaken their chances by taking their players simply to sit on the first team substitutes' bench,” declared Hilton.

“Instead, I'm hoping to sign on a couple of players for the first team pool while hoping that last season's top goal scorer Lee Gilman, who I am happy to say has rejected overtures from Dereham Town, will benefit from his resumed training and do the business again.”

Hilton's anxieties kicked off some weeks ago when his influential centre back and team skipper Graham Challen was sidelined with an industrial injury.

Recently Challen is reported to have put his torn stomach muscles under a scanner and the medical prognosis for the immediate future is far from encouraging, leaving him unable to take the field any more this season.

Wroxham have been out of action for two weeks due to waterlogged grounds but Hilton hopes to resume the league campaign at Newmarket on Saturday before starting preparation for the Norfolk Senior Cup semi-final against Norwich United at Trafford Park a week later.

At present the reigning champions still hold third spot, seven points off Needham Market who have a game in hand but still engaged in the FA Vase and facing a replay.

Soham Town are four points better than Wroxham on level games, but all that will change dramatically if Hilton's men beat Needham twice and Soham once in the final run-in.

“What with injuries, suspensions, illness and players moving away or giving up the game, we've had a troublesome period,” conceded Hilton.

“Even so we've not given up the title chase and both of those teams above us have been struggling lately.”