DANNY Heale said he had endured a “car crash of a day” leading up to Canvey Island’s 3-2 defeat in the FA Cup second qualifying round replay against Potters Bar Town.

The Gulls manager bemoaned his side’s injury problems, with a host of first-team players ruled out, and said striker Martin Tuohy was set to play in goal after a freak accident to stopper Conor Gough.

Gough suffered a serious finger injury during the course of his work the afternoon of the match, with Heale admitting finding a replacement had been a nightmare.

“It has been tough this weekend,” he said. “We weren’t at our best on Saturday and losing Lee O’Leary was a big blow. Our reserve keeper Lewis Greene is injured at the moment and Martin Tuohy was in goal until half-past seven last night after we heard what had happened to Conor.

“He said a beam had fallen on his finger and quarter of it was hanging off and the pictures are horrendous.

“I spoke to the FA and they said we would have to wait until the day after so I pulled a favour in and got Louis Godwin-Green in although he only got here 10 minutes because of work.

“I can’t thank him enough for his help but obviously Conor is going to be out for a while and we are now looking for a keeper ahead of Saturday.

“It has been a car crash of a day but it is no excuse.”

Canvey went 2-0 down against the Southern League Division One side, before Tony Stokes pulled a goal back. Potters Bar restored their two-goal advantage before George Sykes grabbed a second with 10 minutes to go.

A superb save denied Canvey an injury-time equaliser but Heale said the underdogs deserved their victory.

“They wanted it more,” he said. “We have had 180 minutes and only turned up for about 20. They rode their luck but over the two games they edged it.

“Things may need a shake-up. We have things going on behind the scenes ahead of the weekend and we have so many injuries to contend with.

“I said to the boys that the harder you work the luckier you get and we need to work a bit harder.”