Ramsgate need to sign a new goalkeeper ahead of their first game of 2018.

They lost Luke Watkins to a shoulder injury in their 2-1 home defeat to Greenwich on Saturday and will be without their regular No.1 for a couple of weeks at least.

Head coach Lloyd Blackman has several irons in the fire ahead of Rams' home game against rock-bottom Shoreham on Saturday.

He said: "Luke fell awkwardly on his shoulder in the Greenwich game so we'll assess that. He's had an X-ray and there's no bone structure issue, it's just a case of checking to see the soft tissue damage.

"His field of work is physiotherapy so once he's back to work he'll get a much clearer assessment of where he is but it's going to be a couple of weeks at least. There's a couple of plans I have, goalkeeper-wise, so it's no issue.

"We're looking to bring someone in. For Monday's game (which was postponed) Dan Eason from Whitstable had agreed to play for me. Scott Porter very kindly said we could use Dan because there were no SCEFL games going on so it was an opportunity to be able to use Dan, who's a real good lad.

"There are other players I'm speaking to about it and we'll see how we go over the next 48 hours."

Ramsgate are 18th in Bostik South with 30 points from 27 games. They beat Lewes 2-0 before losing 4-2 at Hastings and drawing 2-2 with Hythe ahead of the Greenwich defeat.

Blackman said: "They were four tough games. We walked away with four points and we're frustrated we haven't gone undefeated in those games.

"Our performance levels have been really good, we've been in winning positions in every single one of them and that shows how close we are.

"Our performance against Lewes was excellent as well as the clean sheet so the result was fantastic. Some of the best attacking football we've played against Hastings was undone by individual mistakes, it was a gritty performance against a strong, physical Hythe side and we matched them for that and, in my opinion, deserved the three points.

"Against Greenwich we had decisions not go our way and (their manager) Gary Alexander said it was a tough three points for them.

"Four points is creditable but I can't help but feel we were close to getting a lot more."

"Win two games and we jump about five or six places. Over the course of the season, our performances have improved as has our ability to get results.

"We've been in winning positions, all season, against any of the top 10, so what we're capable of is better than our league position suggests. It just needs a little turn of fortune.

"I don't think we've had much luck over the last two weeks. A few decisions have been puzzling from officials that have made a massive impact on the results we've had but once something drops in our favour, I can see us going on a nice run."