Paul Doswell and his coaching staff are keeping faith with the stuttering strikers of Sutton United – at least for now.

Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at home to Hayes & Yeading in National League South is only the second reverse in 10 games in all competitions.

However, the frontline have only two goals to show for their efforts in the past four games, and one of those was an own goal.

Dan Fitchett, who is now out for up to three weeks with a hamstring injury, leads the goals tally with six, followed by Craig McAlllister (four), Ross Stearn (three) and Tom Bolarinwa (two), while Stuart Fleetwood is yet to get off the mark.

But for the time being, Doswell is sticking to his guns, and hoping a change in luck will ignite his strikers’ fortunes and stop them hitting the woodwork, as they have done 18 times this season, including in the defeat to Hayes & Yeading.

He said: “I cannot fault the players for the way they are playing, but I have never seen anything like it in terms of hitting posts, bars or shots blocked on the line by your own players.

”You either have to suck it up and wait for it to change or do something about it. At the moment we have a lot of trust in the players to get it right.

A Sutton United front: Defeat to Hayes & Yeading left a familiar taste in the mouth

“A change in personnel is not coming just yet, although it is something we are starting to discuss.

Your Local Guardian:

One of four: Craig McAllister scores in United's 1-0 win over Gosport Borough in September   Picture: Paul Loughlin

“Someone out of the front five has to step up to the plate pretty sharpish – they are aware of that. This is not a criticism, but you cannot keep bemoaning bad luck.

“You would not want to leave it much longer than three or four more games, but football is a weird thing that when you get on a scoring run, you never stop scoring.”

He added: “There is a long way to go, there are 26 games, so judge us at the end of April.

“This is not a team that is going to be 15th in the table, it will be challenging for the play-offs, and if we had a bit more luck go with us, I think this year could have been the year to challenge at the top.

“But we always come strong after Christmas, and I don’t think that will change.”