INJURY hit Swindon Supermarine can dispose memories of last year’s Southern League Cup second round exit when making the five-mile trip to face local rivals Highworth Town tonight.

Lee Spalding admits he will be lucky to field 15 players in this evening’s second round tie, which takes place amid a relentless block of fixtures for Marine – which sees them play two matches per week for an entire month.

Highworth, meanwhile, have a far lighter schedule with only three Southern League fixtures and one FA Trophy tie scheduled between now and the turn of the month following this evening’s game.

Squad rotation isn’t even an option for Marine chief Spalding, who admits he will be forced into fielding a 'mix and match' starting XI tonight.

He added: “We’ve got quite a few injuries at the moment, and we will field and mix and match team because of it.

“It’s important we go there and do things properly though.

“We want to play well and perform well – they are key objectives.

“We’ve got a big squad, but we’ll struggle to get 15 for tonight – that’s how deep our injury list runs.

“We can’t look too far ahead.

“We’ll focus on tonight and then take a view to Saturday’s league game at home to Chesham. Tonight will take care of itself – it’s a local derby and we don’t want to perform poorly.

“We played Highworth in pre-season and we were poor.”

Spalding certainly doesn’t expect Highworth, playing in the fourth tier of non-league football, to roll over and provide no threat into tonight’s derby tie.

Current Swindon Town first-team member Ralph Graham is part of Jeff Roberts’ side, as is for-mer Town scholar Sol Pryce – who only last year bagged a brace in the League Two side’s win over Stevenage.

Spalding added: “Highworth will be no pushovers, they had a good result at the weekend.

“I certainly don’t expect us to go there and watch them roll over – we’ll have to work hard and play well.

“If we don’t play well, we won’t get anything from the game.

“I’m looking for a good performance.

“If we play well and to the best of our ability, there is no reason why we shouldn’t win the game.”