Whitton United boss Paul Bugg admits that his side is down to the bare bones ahead of this weekend’s trip to Mildenhall Town in the Thurlow Nunn Premier Division.

Following Tuesday night’s frustrating 2-1 home defeat to FC Clacton, Bugg admitted that anything his side pick up from Saturday’s all-Suffolk encounter would be a bonus.

“We are going to be down to our bare bones and whatever we get there (Mildenhall) will be a grind-out result,” he said.

“I can tell you that Danny (Thrower) is out of Saturday with a calf strain.

“There’s no Liam Jones (whose wife is expecting a baby), there’s no Anton Clarke (long-term injury), the Mead brothers (Jack and Sam) are on a holiday, and Scott Marjoram is struggling.”

Bugg’s men had a good chance to lift themselves up to mid-table with a victory on Tuesday night, but a frustrating game saw them defeated 2-1 by a resolute Clacton side, despite Whitton having most of the possession and the better chances to score.

“Personally I just think sometimes we need to wake up and stop giving sides 2-0 head-starts before we decide to play football,” added Bugg.

“In the last three home games we’ve been 2-0 down (Tuesday’s defeat as well as defeats to Newmarket Town 1-2, and Haverhill Borough 0-2) in the first 45 minutes, and I think that’s what is killing us at the moment to be fair.”

Bugg was left even more deflated after seeing an early header from Thrower ruled out for an apparent foul on Tuesday evening.

“We actually asked the referee why he disallowed the goal and he said that Danny (Thrower) bumped into two Clacton players,” said the Whitton boss.

“We looked at it from the other way – we thought they collided and not Danny – so at the moment things are going against us whereas last year they didn’t.”

Tuesday’s defeat came after an excellent performance and 4-1 win over Ely, something that infuriated Bugg.

“This is where I’m finding it frustrating. We put a performance in away at Ely – people might say ‘yeah Ely are at the bottom of the table’ – but again, that scoreline could’ve been double figures,” he said.

“We are creating loads of chances.

“No disrespect to the players we’ve got but we haven’t got one of those guys who just puts the ball in the net, we really haven’t, and I think that’s what’s really hurting us.”