Worthing boss Danny Bloor has made signing a striker his priority.

Rebels lost 2-1 at home to fellow premier division strugglers Folkestone Invicta and Bloor admitted Worthing are thin on the ground up front with:

  • Ben Andrews suspended for the next two games after accumulating five bookings.
  • James Fraser recovering from a broken collarbone.
  • Veteran Steve Claridge, who has played on a match-bymatch basis, unavailable due to FA regulations until March 1 after turning out recently for Harrow Borough.
  • Bloor revealed he had tried to sign former Watford striker Omari Coleman, who was at Crawley last season.

He said: "We desperately need a target man. We had a go for Omari, who has first team experience with Watford, but it looks as though he will be moving from Fisher Athletic to St Albans.

"Finding a striker is our No.1 priority. My first choice pair of Ben Andrews and James Fraser haven't been able to play together for quite a while.

"We will miss Ben for the next couple of games. He has done a good job since we switched him from defence and Tom Lawley has benefited by playing alongside him.

"Steve Claridge did Harrow Borough manager David Howell a favour by turning out for them. It means he can't immediately play for us again, although I would say he could return next month.

"James is making good progress in his recovery and there is a possibility he might play a part against Billericay on Saturday but we will have to see.

"In the meantime, we need that target man with some big games coming up. We can't afford to wait.

"We haven't got much money but we need to get a striker in to help ensure we stay up.

"Maybe the directors, of which I am one, need to get their fingers out.

"It is crucial that we bring in the right player. Hopefully that can be this week."

The permanent signing of Joe Keehan from Eastbourne Borough should be completed this week and Bloor also needs to sort out the club's lack of training facilities.

Players and coaches were unable to use the Woodside Road pitch in the build-up to the visit of Folkestone due to weather conditions.

He said: "We couldn't train for the whole week so it was not surprising that we did not play that well. Normally we use the main pitch but we were unable to do so because the pitch had to be okay for Folkestone.

"We have no facilities to train on other than our main pitch and it is a major problem.

"We are running the club on a shoestring but somehow we have got to find new training facilities."

Bloor slammed his side's performance against Invicta.

Rikki Banks made two fine saves to keep the first half goalless but James Everitt put Folkestone in front eight minutes after the restart.

Jamie Lawrence equalised from a Danny Davis free-kick 18 minutes from time but Ellis Remy snatch the visitors' winner three minutes later.

Bloor said: "We weren't good enough and did not deserve anything.

"We are in a dogfight and have done okay recently, totting up seven from a possible 12 points in the last four games, but we've got to improve.

"Rikki Banks played more like Gordon Banks with a series of stunning saves but it was disappointing to concede after getting back into the game."