Bath City bid to snatch Fortune from Weston

Bath City boss Adie Britton is looking to sign defender Clayton Fortune from Blue Square South rivals Weston-super-Mare as the Twerton Park injury crisis continues.

Chris Holland, Ryan Robinson, Stuart Douglas, Mark Badman, Richard Evans, Marcus Browning and Aaron Cornwall are all sidelined for tomorrow's trip to Bishop's Stortford, leaving Britton with a bare 11 available senior players.

He has submitted seven days' notice of approach to Weston for 26-year-old Fortune, who boasts Football League experience with Bristol City, Darlington, Port Vale and Leyton Orient.

Britton is also scouring the loan market for reinforcements, with tomorrow's trip followed by a home game with Eastleigh on Tuesday night.

Keeper Robinson hopes to receive the all-clear from a back specialist on September 20 and should be fit to make his Bath debut at the start of October.

Holland, last season's player of the year, is visiting knee specialist Jonathan Webb to discuss the possibility of an operation, while Mark Badman sustained a hamstring injury at Dorchester and will be missing for a month.

Stuart Douglas undergoes neck surgery on Monday and will not return for another eight weeks, while winger Evans is still troubled by a bruised foot but may make his comeback at home to Lewes on Saturday week.

Veteran midfielder Browning, meanwhile, begins a three-match ban tomorrow following his sending-off in Bath's 3-1 defeat by Hampton & Richmond Borough.

Andy Gurney's Weston outfit face a difficult home clash against in-form Braintree Town, who are unbeaten away from home so far this season.

Braintree moved into fourth place with a 2-1 home victory over Chelmsford City on Monday while Weston were losing 2-0 at Newport County, but the Seagulls' assistant boss Smith has been encourged by their early-season form .

"I felt we played very well, particularly in the first half, at Newport," he said. "If we had put away the chances we created, we would have come with three points and this has been our big problem so far this season".

Weston-super-Mare (from): Sawyer, Green, Parinello, Harris, Rand, Holgate, Fortune, Mullins, Llewellyn, Brown, Compton, Bartlett, McGregor, Klein-Davies, Evans, Wells, Labourieux.