Eastbourne Borough's fading title hopes have received another blow after it was revealed striker Scott Ramsay has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a broken ankle.

Ramsay limped out of Saturday's 2-2 draw with Weston-super-Mare early in the first half and Borough boss Garry Wilson's attempts to sign a replacement before yesterday's transfer deadline failed.

The news is a massive setback for Borough as it leaves them without a fit and available first-choice striker for the most important part of the season.

Top scorer Andy Atkin will miss the games against Bath, Newport County and Braintree through suspension, Nathan Crabb has a persistent back injury and Allan Tait was stretchered off against Weston.

Wilson has resisted the temptation to recall Dan Leach from his loan spell with Hastings and may hand reserve striker Evan Archibald a chance to stake his claim in tonight's Sussex Senior Cup semi-final with Crawley at Lewes (7.45).

The Borough boss was desperate to reinforce his squad yesterday with Matt Smart, Marc Pullan and Robbie Kember also picking up injuries on Saturday and Neil Jenkins and Ben Austin due to serve bans but admits he simply ran out of time.

Wilson said: "The chairman is usually pretty strict with the budget but because of what happened on Saturday he was sympathetic and gave us permission to make some signings.

"Unfortunately this has happened at the worst possible time because we only had two days to sort something out and that is just not long enough.

"We had one or two in the pipeline but we just needed a bit more time to complete the deals."

There was some good news on the injury front yesterday with X-rays showing Tait had not suffered a fracture and could return in two weeks while Smart's knee injury is not thought to be as serious as first feared.

Marc Pullan misses tonight's semi-final against Crawley with a recurrence of a thigh strain.

But the former Crawley defender might be back for Saturday's crucial league trip to Thurrock and Crabb and Kember are waiting to have scans on back and Achilles injuries respectively.

Jenkins, Ben Austin and Atkin - who all have suspensions hanging over them - are all available for tonight's cup clash but Wilson might decide not to risk them with his squad already stretched to the limit.

Wilson added: "Things aren't looking great at the moment but we've just got to get on with it.

"We'll still put out a reasonable side against Crawley and it is a chance to restore some morale."