The Lacemen have endured a tough start to life at the higher level and the ‘missing player count’ increases by the week with injuries a key element of that.

Honiton's Jerry Rice says: "Our current injury list is long; suffice to say, it is bad! In a season you get niggles but this season they are more than niggles. Our skipper Harry Wright broke his elbow and where we have the real problems is at prop. We have lost three in Bailey, Goulden and Watts, who are out with a broken jaw, knee ligaments and ankle ligament, then on top of that Ben Logan has a new job which restricts how many Saturdays he is available for.

This is the same for Tom Steer, who has a job with Exeter Chiefs as a schools liaison officer and he has to work on some of their home games. Adam Thompson who was also key last year has torn the ligament in his big toe and it's also not a quick fix and then there are hamstring pulls, shoulder injuries and any bangs on the heads that means time off for safety… all in all it adds up to about nine who regularly played last season… not what you need when the level we are playing at is tougher.

Looking ahead to Saturday's home meeting with Chard, Jerry said: "We haven't played Chard at senior level for a long time as they are in the Somerset league system and despite being near neighbours our paths never really crossed. Now we are in the Western Counties League we are now at the same level so I guess it is a local derby, although we don't necessarily see it as that; maybe we should though."