Jamie Coyle has thanked Dartford’s board for their financial backing in the midst of an injury crisis.

Darts barely had 11 fit players late last week after Darren McQueen joined the queue for the treatment room.

McQueen and Alex Flisher both have dislocated shoulders while Charlie Sheringham is struggling with an ongoing thigh problem.

Sam Blackman’s broken leg will rule him out for most of the season and Lee Noble (hamstring) failed a fitness test before Saturday’s National League South opener at Wealdstone.

It was looking bleak for joint-managers Coyle and Adam Flanagan until the directors sanctioned some extra spending.

Dartford moved quickly to sign strikers Adam Cunnington and Norman Wabo plus midfielder Amos Nasha, while academy graduate Cameron Brodie has also signed a contract.

Coyle said: “They’ve allowed us to bring in three brilliant players and I don’t think any other club would have done that because financially they wouldn’t be able to afford it.

“They’ve really helped us out in a time of need. If we didn’t bring those three in, we wouldn’t have been able to fill a starting XI on Saturday.

“The club have backed us massively, last-minute before the start of the season, and we thank them for that.”

All four players were in the squad at Wealdstone, where Dartford were only able to name four substitutes.

Coyle said: “It’s always difficult but we don’t want to make excuses. We’ve got a fantastic squad now but it’s never ideal to have so many injuries in pre-season.

“We’ve had to deal with certain things since we’ve been at the club, starting with Andy Pugh’s broken leg and now we’ve Alex Flisher, Macca and Sam Blackman on the sidelines.

“I keep joking with Adam that one of us must have run over a black cat! You do need luck and unfortunately, since we’ve been at the football club, we haven’t had that.

“You’ve got to take the rough with the smooth but we’ve had a lot of rough and not much smooth.

“You’ve got to look to the future and try to remain positive but I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t been frustrating since we’ve joined with the injuries we’ve had.

“On Thursday morning, before the first game of the season, we had Andy Pugh – who’s not completed 90 minutes in pre-season because we’re building up his minutes because of his broken leg – as our only fit forward so we were in a bit of bother.

“We’re lucky that we were able to bring in Norman and Adam on Thursday night.”

Dartford, who drew 1-1 with St Albans on Tuesday night, are at home to Havant on Saturday.

Read more: The latest sports news from Kent