Mahons swap places

Injury with the Mahon midfield boys has long been a familiar tale for the Green Lions and no sooner had the younger Liam got himself back into the side, he drops out again with a groin strain likely to keep him out for a month.

But his absence gives Kieran the chance to reclaim a regular spot which was his until a succession of shoulder injuries took him out of football and, ultimately, necessitaed surgery.

Vance, who has named a 16-man squad, is pleased to have Kieran back today.

‘He’s a Rottweiller and to be fair to him he has been absolutely flying in training this last month.

‘We have been holding him back until we thought he was ready. But he really wanted to be involved and I hope for his sake his shoulder holds up.

‘He covers so much ground and his competitiveness is great for the side.’

With Paris Pereira away, there will be no ‘Paz and Faz’ double spearhead today, and the former’s absence means a possible Bostik South East debut for Carlos Canha, last season’s FNB Priaulx League player of the year, and his Rovers team-mate, defender Louis Graham.

The likelihood, though, is that Canha starts on the bench and it will be either Kyle Smith or Matt Loaring immediately benefiting from Pereira’s absence.

Tom de la Mare is also absent at a wedding and the upshot is that Thomas Dodds will continue in his new role of right-back for a while longer.

As for Ashford, Vance says he would be guessing as to how they line up.

‘I have no idea of what they have got because they have brought in pretty much a brand new team.

‘They had a great result though last week [3-1 at home to Hythe Town] against a team who are expected to be up there at the top as well.

‘If we can do better in front of goal we can be much more of a threat ourselves this year. “Faz’’ started well and we have got to continue to use his assets.

‘At the other end, we cannot afford to give silly goals away like last week.’

SQUAD:

Callum Stanton, Jordan Kelly, Frank Tobin, Simon Geall, Jamie Dodd, Thomas Dodds, Louis Graham, Craig Young, Matt Loaring, Charlton Gauvain, Dave Rihoy, Seb Skillen, Kieran Mahon, Carlos Canha, Will Fazakerley and Kyle Smith.

Possible starting XI:

Stanton, Dodds, Geall, Dodd, Tobin; Young, Mahon, Gauvain; Rihoy; Loaring, Fazakerley.

Kick off is at 2pm.