Ady Gallagher will not allow his players to read too much into Lowestoft Town's latest hard-luck story.

The Trawlerboys have been fighting a huge battle all season after being once again placed in National League North by the FA. Their chances of avoiding the drop have not been helped by the arrival of an injury crisis at a crunch time in their campaign.

The Blues head to Gainsborough Trinity this afternoon in search of more vital points and Gallagher isn't ready to make any excuses if they return home empty-handed.

The Lowestoft boss said: 'We've only got a 17-man squad. To lose potentially five at once is incredibly difficult. I challenge any team to cope.

'However, you just have to put it to one side and focus on each game individually. Today is massive. If we get a result it could have a massive impact on our remaining games. We've got to focus on the players that we have available to us as I know they will do everything they can to get us over the line.

'The reality is you can't focus too much or think around the edges of what's going on. You need your focus to be on the game.

'At any level of football lower-level teams and lower-placed teams can upset teams from even the Premier League. It's all about preparations, how you focus before games and whether you end up being fully prepared. Those are things that you can affect during the build-up and on the day.

'The players that are unavailable, you can't affect them. If we were mid-table I'm sure no-one would be worrying about it.

'We can't afford to brush games away and put them down to bad luck or the injuries that we have. It's going to be a tough ask but we've got a job to do.'

Jake Reed and Harry Barker will definitely miss the fixture with ankle problems. Shaun Bammant (Achilles), pictured, Southend United loanee Harry Kyprianou (hamstring) and Adam Smith (hamstring) are rated as extremely doubtful.

A draw could be enough to lift third-from-bottom Lowestoft, who have a game in hand on the side directly above them, out of the drop zone. But with four matches left to play after today, Gallagher is just focusing on matters at hand.

He added: 'You have to think about a game at a time as you can't get sidetracked. If you do, that's when the wheels can fall off.

'It's been a tough season from start to finish for us all but I'm much more comfortable with the squad that I've got now compared to what we had earlier in the season.

'I believe we've got the character, quality and the fight to pull us through.'