Romford boss Steve Butterworth admits his side face 'mission impossible' against Chelmsford City in the FA Cup this weekend.
Boro welcome the in-form National League South side to Barking's Mayesbrook Park on Saturday for a third qualifying round tie, having already won four matches in this year's competition.
But having secured a 3-2 FA Vase win over West Essex last weekend and snatched a 2-2 draw at Essex Senior League rivals FC Clacton in midweek, Butterworth is without some key men as they chase a giantkilling.
"Lewis Smith is cup-tied, Tambeson [Eyong] is suspended for four games after a red card on Saturday and Scott Doe is working for BT Sport," said Butterworth.
"If we thought it was going to be hard, it's now mission impossible!"
Jesse Olukolu is also facing a race against time to make the matchday squad, after picking up an injury on Tuesday night.
"Jesse came off and was limping when he left the ground, which is a massive blow," added Butterworth.
"He has been our most effective player and we will decide on Saturday morning. We don't expect anything but we can have a go.
"We can go and enjoy the day. They're obviously very good and up to third, they don't concede many and are the best they've been for the last three or four years."
Charlie Morris, Kris Newby (penalty) and Olukolu netted in a 17-minute spell to put Boro 3-0 up at half-time against West Essex on Saturday, having beaten them in stoppage time in the Peter Butcher Memorial Trophy four days earlier.
But the visitors hit back with 20 minutes left and saw Doe divert the ball into his own net in injury time.
"First half we were superb, 3-0 up, but we took our foot off a bit," said Butterworth.
"We made changes to get some minutes into others, they got one back and then another with the last kick.
"We were fairly comfortable, but you can see why they're doing well."
Boro were handed a trip to Newmarket in the next round when the draw was made on Monday and travelled to the Essex coast the following evening to face the Seasiders.
Clacton opened the scoring just before the break and went 2-0 up on the hour, but they were reduced to 10 men on 64 minutes and went down to nine a quarter of an hour later.
Boro laid siege to the home goal and halved the deficit in the first minute of injury time through Morris, then saw Lewis Smith tripped in the box and Jake Gordon fire home from the spot in the seventh minute of stoppage time.
"We were poor. If they hadn't had two sent off, I don't think we would've got anything," said Butterworth.
"It was a midweek journey you don't really want, turning up at 7.15 and set up for a banana skin.
"They put a shift it. They worked harder than anyone else has against us.
"But when they went down to nine, I don't know how their keeper has kept them in it. We could've got six or seven.
"We got both goals really late to get a point and show we've still got a bit about us, but we can't play like we did for the first hour if we want to be up there this season."
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