The Magpies of Dereham Town aim to keep singing without their ace striker

Dereham Town will be looking to prove life can continue without their star striker Shaun Bammant.

The Magpies head to Thurrock looking to stretch their unbeaten run in Ryman Division One North to four games. But it will be the first time they have lined up without the frontman – who signed off with two goals and an assist in his final appearance – to join higher-level Lowestoft Town on loan until the end of the season.

Dereham assistant Neal Simmonds said: 'When the interest first came about, we didn't want to stand in Shaun's way and at the end of the day while we are sad to see him go the timing of the move is right for both us and him and its really pleasing that we remain on excellent terms with each other.

'There are so many different factors affecting how successful a player is from traveling to commitment in training as well as obviously performing on the pitch, and Shaun has been a great servant to the club and I would like to wish him all the best from all of us here at Dereham.

'We go into the game with an excellent range of attacking options and with Thurrock in in-different form of late and us coming into the game off the back of three positive results and an excellent training session – we are confident of recording another positive result.'

Town have got slight injury concerns over Matt Howard and Ryan Hawkins.