“We have got a lot of wounded players” said Cribbs manager Richard Luffman ahead of their seven hour round trip to Mousehole on Saturday.
The Bristolian side have had a flying start to life in the Southern League Division One after promotion last year from the Hellenic League and sit seventh.
They take on a Mousehole side who sit in fourth with games in hand over all three teams above them.
Victory for Cribbs could see them join Mousehole in the the playoff places, which would be the first time in the history for the South Gloucestershire side.
Luffman said: “Mousehole pose a massive challenge as they are a really good football team, I think they’re a couple of points above us in the table and they have had a really good start to the Southern League as everyone would expect.
“It’s a good thing for us though, we like being the underdogs; I think probably we felt a bit of pressure for the Evesham game in the week as we were expected to win but on Saturday we go down there with nothing to lose really.
“They’re the big club of the two and they’re looking to try and get into the Southern Premier League and are making the right noises about that.”
Jake Hodgson and Aaron Ward-Baptiste both came away from Cribbs’ mid-week game against Evesham with hamstring and calf injuries respectively.
The loss of those key players as well as the suspended Ross McErlain means that Luffman’s squad could be stretched for the next few weeks.
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The Cribbs manager said: “After moaning about having too big a squad to choose from we’re going to be a little bit tested now and that will start with a big game on Saturday.”
