TIM Langford admitted he was "pig sick" after the Stourport Swifts player-manager's injury woes struck again.

The veteran striker, who enjoyed his best pre-season for five years, tore his hamstring after just 25 minutes at Swindon Supermarine.

Swifts ended up surrendering a two-goal lead to draw their opening clash 2-2 and gave up another advantage in losing 2-1 to Sutton Coldfield on Tuesday.

Langford was worried at the sloppy defensive errors, particularly in the midweek home defeat.

He said: "I said to the players that it doesn't matter whether it's the Premiership or Sunday morning football, you can't give away goals like we have been.

"I felt the first goal we let in against Sutton was more scandalous than the second. I told them what they did from corners before the match and we were just asleep.

"Sutton shut up shop and worked hard when they had the lead but I don't think we'd have scored if we were still playing now.

"We've gone from a high at Swindon, bar the last five minutes, to only having one point when we could have all six.

"But I also feel there were some tired legs and that's down to people having to work during the day."

Langford is still pursuing new strikers ahead of Saturday's game with title favourites Weston-super-Mare at Walshes Meadow.

The boss will definitely miss a month's action and is also without Andy Wright who is taking a holiday before his knee operation but Kerry Giddings is back from suspension.

Langford declared: "We must get our heads up because it's a long season and we've got a severe test on Saturday.

"If we get something out of it, it will be a massive boost for Monday's game at Redditch.

"As for Weston, they seem to have financial clout with the wages their players are getting paid allegedly.

"We will have to work hard though I cannot fault the effort of the players, it's just individual and collective mistakes.

"We beat Weston 1-0 at home last year and I will take the same result this time."

The clash with rivals Redditch, managed by former boss Rod Brown, is a 3pm kick-off.

And it will be further spiced up by Friday's tribunal to decide a transfer fee for Alex Cowley who joined Reds in the summer.

Langford added: "It's difficult to put into words how I feel about my injury.

"I worked so hard in pre-season and now I'm back to square one."