Oxford City general manager Justin Merritt admits he is desperate to land a new keeper in a bid to end a run of three successive defeats away to North Ferriby United tomorrow.

With regular stopper Mark Scott continuing to struggle with a shoulder injury, Merritt and coach Enrique Guillen this week flew to Valencia to tie-up a deal with an unnamed Spanish keeper.

Should he sign, it would take their Iberian contingent to six.

“We’re trying to agree a deal with this guy,”said Merritt.

“We’re not looking at turning the whole team into Spanish players, but we received a recommendation on a high-quality goalkeeper.

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“We’ve been searching high and low for a keeper in this country, but it’s difficult as the good ones are tied to clubs.

“If we did sign him I doubt he could play on Saturday because we couldn’t get international clearance in time.

“So we’ll probably continue with Ben Abbey.”

Meanwhile, Merritt says they have to cut out the mistakes which cost his side in Saturday’s 3-0 loss to Hednesford.

He added: “It was disappointing to lose because our performance was good up until we lost Declan Benjamin (sent off).

“I thought we were the better side by far, but we haven’t dealt with set-pieces into our penalty area.

“North Ferriby are direct and strong, so we have been working on ways to combat that in training this week.

“It’s difficult when you go three games without a win, but you have to persevere.”

City will be without defender Alejandro-Adrian Santiago who serves a one-match suspension for his sending off at Lowestoft.

Forward Felipe Barcelos faces a late fitness test on an ankle injury.

Striker Lewis Wilson is added to the squad after completing a loan spell at Kettering, while Claudio Hoban has gone out on loan to the Southern League club.

Oxford City (v North Ferriby Utd, away): from Scott, Abbey, Stonehouse, Pond, Lapoujade, Green, Insa, Rodriguez, Barcelos, Mullings, Yussuf, Benjamin, Winters, Wilson, Brown, Henderson, Isaac, Jackson, Del Alamo, Wilson, Brown.

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