LIFE in the nether regions of non-League football can be tough.

Often it's not so much a matter of fielding your best team, more a case of making sure you can field a team at all.

Just ask Denzil Hart, the Colne player-manager who has made a fair start to what some might think is the thankless task of making sure the club avoid last season's indignity of finishing rock bottom of the NW Counties League Second Division.

For every Kevin Keegan free-wheeling in football's fast lane, there's a Denzil Hart tootling along on the inside, just trying to keep up with the traffic, let alone pass anything.

But, despite the problems encountered - and heightened by their midweek Challenge Cup defeat by Bacup - Denzil retains a sense of humour.

Some might say it's a pre-requisite of the job.

Discussing Colne's mounting injury problems as they prepare for tomorrow's vital game against Ashton Town, he laughed: "Even the player-manager is injured. I've got a bit of a dead-leg.

"It's sore but hopefully it will be all right for Saturday.

"It'll have to be, because the missing persons list is growing longer."

When the priority is making sure that you can still raise 14 players among a casualty list long enough to form a queue at the local surgery and work and holiday commitments, which have counted out other members of the squad, any manager would have problems. But Denzil is nothing if not determined and believes there is light at the end of the tunnel.

"Yes, we're having problems putting a team together but we have got to go out against Ashton and do what we can," he said.

"To be fair, we haven't really been played off the park by anybody yet, even though we are bit unbalanced because of the missing personnel.

"I certainly can't fault the lads for their commitment and we've been making chances which we need to start taking.

"It was very good game against Bacup but, while we had good chances, we know what happens if we don't take them. Their two goals came from what you might call half chances."

Nick Roscoe picked up an ankle injury on Saturday and Nigel Coates is a major doubt tomorrow after damaging a hamstring.

Others absent will include Simon Strachan and Craig Stansfield.

"It's an ongoing situation and it hasn't helped us not being able to train very much because of the midweek games. You are also worried about someone else picking up an injury," added the manager. "We are at the stage where we have to be looking to bring people in."

Again, unlike managers at the fashionable end of the football scale, there's no open cheque book to wave.

But Denzil seems to be cultivating a good spirit as Colne battle to stay away from that bottom rung.

And, sometimes, that can be a priceless asset.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.