Oundle roared to three straight wins back in December to ignite their miserable season and looked certain to climb out of trouble, but a month out of action appears to have taken its toll.

Clifton's men sat out five successive weekends during January and have resumed their campaign this month by being knocked out of the PFA Senior Cup and suffering two damaging league defeats.

The latest of those was a 6-2 drubbing at Peterborough Sports on Saturday - a result made even more significant by second-bottom Stamford Bels' 3-0 triumph over Crowland.

But Clifton insists he has never been more certain his side will survive the drop.

He said: "It feels like we are back to square one and all the hard work in December has been undone.

"Conceding goals really knocks the stuffing out of us and the heads drop way too quickly.

"We have got to rediscover the positive attitude we had when we started winning games. The players must have the belief that I do because I am 100 per-cent sure we will stay up.

"We don't have time on our side. Every defeat makes our job harder and we could have done without Bels winning as well, but we have a lot of home games ahead and we are unbeaten on our own ground since I took over."

An own goal set Oundle on the way to defeat before a Luke Thackham treble (including two penalties), an Eddie Lungay effort and a Shane Milne strike brought up the Sports' half-dozen.

And Clifton's view wasn't shared by successful Sports boss James Brattan. He said: "I really do hope Oundle stay up because I used to play with Danny and know a lot of the lads there.

"They were the better side for the opening stages but we produced some of the best counter-attacking football I have seen locally to take charge.

"It became a bit of a massacre and I have to admit I can't really see Oundle staying up."





STAMFORD Bels boss Martin Conneely reckons the pressure is off his side.

Bels cruised past fellow strugglers Crowland 3-0 on Saturday to vastly improve their chances of avoiding the drop.