CHRIS Smith's knee injury is a big setback and it looks as though he might need an operation.

He suffered a nasty challenge at Stafford Rangers on Boxing Day and we suspected it was just bone bruising, but it could be more serious.

Smudger sees a specialist later this week, whereby we'll know more on whether he requires surgery. There is a 70 per cent chance that he will.

We will miss him, as we already have done. He's been a great signing for Worcester City and one of our most consistent players.

The club needs a squad capable of coping with injuries to key players.

We were a bit thin on the ground in defence and so it's good to have Dennis Pearce on board.

Dennis will give us variety in different positions at the back, as will Shabir Khan when he is 100 per cent.

It is difficult finding quality left-footers, but Dennis is very capable and gives us options at left wing-back and on the left side of central defence, with Justin Thompson playing on the right.

He's going to add competition to our squad. Players need to be on their toes throughout the side.

I'm still looking for a striker to freshen things up a bit and hopefully I will be able to make another couple of signings before Saturday's FA Trophy tie at Crawley Town.

Another plus for us is that Liam McDonald is close to a return. He trained after the Kettering game, so he should be back pretty soon.

It's great to win again in Nationwide North. Saturday's game was always going to be tough because Kettering are solid, organised and don't give a lot away. But it was a must-win game for us.

We dominated the first-half and perhaps deserved to take a half-time lead, then they came back into it in the second-half.

We still had the better of it without creating too many clear-cut opportunities.

But I thought that if one side was going to win, it was us.

At one point, when it was 0-0, I thought it was going to be another of those games where we'd lose 1-0.

There was a fear that the longer the game went on, Kettering may nick it.

But we deserved to win and eventually scored just after bringing on a couple of substitutions.

I pulled George Clegg back a bit, put Troy Wood out wide and I felt Nick Colley might have the legs to get behind Kettering more.

We took the lead through an own goal, but we deserved that bit of luck for our work-rate.

Because we have not won a league game for a while, we then got a little edgy towards the end.

Danny McDonnell was on his guard and did well when called upon, making a couple of important saves. Before that I don't think he had anything to do.

Leon Kelly wrapped it up with an excellent goal. Leon looks better when he's played out wider, he's thriving in that position.

He's just got to keep that level of consistency for the rest of the season and he'll get his goals if he maintains that work-rate.