Sheppey United are hoping things fall into place this week after a significant injury blow at the weekend.

Striker Dan Carr went off injured in their 2-0 Isthmian South East win against Steyning Town and could now be missing for several weeks, depending on how bad his knee injury turns out to be. The club were awaiting scans on the injury this week.

Summer signing Carr has netted four goals for the Ites this season but his absence looks set to coincide with the availability of Gillingham loan player Harry Bridle, who has recovered from a hamstring injury.

Bridle is expected to train tomorrow (Thursday), in anticipation of making his debut this weekend. The Gills scholar signed last week on a youth loan deal.

Sheppey boss Ernie Batten said: “Harry is recovering from a hamstring injury but is due to train with us and there is a very good chance he will be with us on Saturday.

“He was in and around the first team at Gillingham in pre-season and I am looking forward to him coming in.

“Dan started the season well but right at the end of the game on Saturday he went in for a tackle, I think it was a bit of a 50-50 and he went down a bit awkwardly.”

Sheppey have striker Dan Bradshaw back available too as he missed the Steyning game. He played on Tuesday night in the Kent Senior Cup against Hythe Town, making his 200th appearance for the club.

The first-round tie went finished 1-1 after Rhys Wyborn’s edge-of-the-box screamer midway through the first half was cancelled out with three minutes left, Sammi Takaloo’s goal taking the match to penalties. Hythe won 5-3 in the shootout.

Focus remains on the league, free from major cup distractions, which Batten feels has helped with their fantastic start.

They ended the weekend with five wins from five after Jacob Lambert and Danny Leonard scored against Steyning.

Batten said: “We’ve made a decent start and last season we had the FA Cup distraction. We are not in the FA Cup now, so hopefully we can continue that form.

“Last season was fantastic, and you wouldn’t change it for anything, but we had about 11 cup games in a row without a league game.

“We lost players to injury, and we rested players with niggles for the cup games against Billericay and Walsall. We went to Merstham with virtually an under-23 team, which we lost, and we had a couple of games with a very diluted squad.

“It does affect you, unless you have got a squad big enough and strong enough to cope with it. You need strength in depth and some sides in our league are carrying squads on a decent-sized budget.

Isthmian South East table

“If you have got equally good players that you can rotate, then happy days.

“There are not many who can do that and they are the ones still in the competitions but I am perfectly happy with where we are at.

“Although, I would say we have not played any of the big-hitters like Ramsgate, Sittingbourne, Ashford or Margate, teams like that.

“But if we can get these points on the board now, when it comes to those games we’d have a bit of a head start, a bit like Three Bridges last year, who managed to make the play-offs. Their good start was a catalyst for them being in the play-offs.”

Sheppey will be looking to make it six league wins on the trot when they head to struggling Phoenix Sports this Saturday.

Batten said: “We went there last season when they were struggling and we lost so we know there are no easy games and we won’t be treating them any different to any other sides in this league.”