Nikki Bull says he will continue to do everything he can to keep Margate in Vanarama National League South but admits attracting players to Hartsdown is difficult.

The Blues sit next bottom four points from safety after the 3-0 home defeat to Welling on Boxing Day stretched their losing sequence to nine games.

Bull's side have scored just twice during that dismal run and have not found the net in the league since Keanu Williams struck in the 2-1 defeat at Eastbourne Borough on November 22 - a spell spanning nearly six-and-a-half hours.

The boss says he knows better than most that he needs more firepower but says recruiting players, and particularly strikers, is easier said than done in the club's present financial situation.

Bull, who saw young forward Victor Adeboyejo recalled by parent club Leyton Orient just minutes after he had trained with the Blues last Thursday, added: "I hear people all the time saying we need a couple of goalscorers. Well we had them earlier in the season but we had to get rid of them (due to budget cuts).

"I know we desperately need to strengthen in a couple of positions and that we need more people with know-how and physicality at this level but the quality we need doesn't come cheap.

"We're a Conference South club operating on a Ryman Division 1 South budget and that does not get you very far.

"People simply do not realise the kind of money that players get paid in this division. Conference South is what the Conference was eight or nine years ago. Then people could play in the conference and do another job if they wanted to but today the conference is effectively League 3.

"The majority of clubs are full-time and those that aren't pay full-time (wages) and expect full-time commitment.

"Players can't play in the conference and have a nine to five job like they once did so they are dropping down to the next level, which is ours."

Margate and Welling meet again at Park View Road on New Year's Day (3pm) and Bull admits his side will need to be more ruthless at both ends if they are to reverse the first result.

He added: "The Boxing Day game was like a lot of our games recently. There was nothing between the sides for much of the first half and we'd probably had the two best chances but then we gave away a needless penalty. To be fair though once their second goal went in it was one-way traffic."

Bull has no fresh injury worries for the derby although he will check on Hakeem Adelakun's fitness after the midfielder played 90 minutes for Three Bridges in their 4-2 home defeat against East Grinstead on Tuesday.

Margate have brought in striker Ira Jackson on a 28-day loan from Dover, but have lost teenage midfielder Harry Phipps who has signed for Maidstone United.