Non-league football club Dorking Wanderers have signed a 54-year-old fan to replace their injured goalkeeper – and the man is due to be named in the starting line-up when the team host AFC Totton on Saturday.
Dorking currently ply their trade in the National League South, two levels below League Two. They are 11th in the table after picking up three wins from their first seven matches of the campaign. But their regular goalkeeper Harrison Foulkes will be unavailable this weekend after he suffered a “spleen injury”. And Dorking supporter Terry Dunn has agreed to step in after initially hanging up his gloves in 1997 following spells with local sides.
Dunn has joined Dorking on a “temporary basis”, with fans being told to expect the arrival of a new loan goalkeeper at the start of next week.
And Dorking said in a statement on their website: “In light of the unfortunate news that first-team goalkeeper Harrison Foulkes has suffered a spleen injury and will be out of action for up to four weeks – and with the club unable to secure a replacement in time for Saturday’s match against AFC Totton – we are delighted to welcome staunch supporter Terry Dunn to the Wanderers’ ranks.”
Meanwhile, Dunn commented: “Playing in goal is like riding a bike – you never forget it. I still regularly play walking football.
“As a Wanderers fan, no one will be trying harder than me to keep a clean sheet on Saturday.”
And Dorking chairman and first-team manager Marc White added: “In an era where passion comes in low quantities, what Terry lacks in mobility, he’ll make up for in heart – and for one game, we’re just going to have to get on with it.”
White was asked about the club’s injury plight during an interview in the aftermath of his side’s defeat to Hornchurch on Tuesday.
And he stated: “We’ve just got so much work to do. We don’t know our best team, we haven’t got boys at the levels of fitness we want. We don’t have changes in every area, we don’t have 8s, we don’t have wingers, we don’t have a left centre-back. We are short of players, it’s frustrating.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do and we will do that work. We will massively work hard.”
He added: “It’s not a level playing field in terms of where we want to be because we don’t have enough bodies and we are tired.”