DORCHESTER Town face a striker crisis ahead of tonight’s Dorset Senior Cup final with Poole Town at the Wessex Stadium (7.45pm).

The Magpies, who have failed to score in 412 minutes, are without first-choice forwards Phil Walsh and Jacob Erskine as the duo are ineligible to play having joined the club after the semi-final win over Sherborne Town.

And Dorchester, 10-time winners of the competition, could also be missing makeshift strikers Mitchell Nicholson and Kevin Hill due to injury.

In order to combat their shortage of front men assistant-manager Ashley Vickers, who is also ineligible this evening, and player-boss Roy O’Brien are pondering the option of bringing back AFC Bournemouth’s Steve Hutchings.

Hutchings scored once in six appearances for the Magpies before being recalled by the Cherries’ reserve-team.

Vickers said: “Unfortunately we’ve not got Jacob or Phil spearheading the attack but we’re still going to start with a strong side because it’s important to try and build a winning mentality.

“Winning is a habit, the lads have made all the right noises in the last two games and it will come I’m sure. They’ve just got to keep believing in each other.

“There’s a possibility we might try and get Steve Hutchings back because he would be eligible to play. But I’ll speak to Roy about it and we’ll have to talk to Bournemouth first.

“Mitch has an ankle problem and Kev’s struggling a bit having played a lot of games this season so we’ll have to see how they are before we pick the team.”

A handful of Dorchester Town Under-18s have played their part in helping the Magpies to the final and a number of them could be included tonight.

Vickers added: “A couple of the Under-18s could feature, if so it’s an opportunity for them to impress myself and Roy.”

Opponents Poole will not be short of confidence given their unbeaten run in the Wessex Premier League this season. The Dolphins’ record reads played 36, won 35, drawn one, lost none.

Former Dorchester striker Tommy Killick, now boss of the Dolphins, said: “It’s an interesting one, but I guess you would have to say, quality-wise, they will be better than us. But the game might be more important to our players than theirs and that could work in our favour.

“We see it as a big game because of who we are playing against. It helps that the game is being played at Weymouth, which makes it good opposition and a good ground.”

Magpies (from): Stewart, Coward, Bowles, Reeve, Smeeton, O’Brien, Hill, Jermyn, Gleeson, Crittenden, Mitchell, Watts, Nicholson, Clarke, Hutchings, Critchel, Johnson, N Kellaway, Taylor.