BOSS Luke Hicks may be forced to don the gloves for Ludlow’s West Midlands Regional League return with both regular keepers ruled out.

The new club makes its Division Two bow at Warstone Wanderers on Saturday (3pm) but cannot call upon the services of stoppers Liam Griffiths or Kieron Roche.

Hicks, usually a striker or centre-half, is likely to pick himself or assistant Chris Waldron between the sticks on an afternoon that Ludlow must also make do without hotshot Dan Crowther, the scorer of 24 goals in 19 games for Ludlow Colts last season.

“Dan will be a big miss, he has scored a few goals for us and showed some good pace in pre-season but he has a family wedding,” said Hicks.

“Liam is on holiday for the first two games which is tricky, too. It will be either me or Chris in goal which is not ideal.

“I have been a centre-half for the past few years and have gradually dropped back but I didn’t expect to be moving back this far!”

Other than that, Ludlow have some 19 players to pick from with Hicks acknowledging he has some tough calls to make.

“I played against Warstone for AFC Ludlow a couple of years ago and they generally have a big, well-organised side. It will be a good test and a difficult one,” he added.

“They will be similar to a lot of the teams we will face this season so this will be a good gauge of where we are.”

Elsewhere, Church Stretton kick off with a trip to Oldbury United (3pm) after moving up from the Mercian League.