Chapman confident his Burgess Hill Town side can avoid the drop

The Hillians now have four games left to escape relegation, starting with an away fixture against Harrow Borough this Saturday.

Chapman is cautiously optimistic about his side’s chances, but will be missing at least two players for this weekend’s fixture.

“I honestly believe we can get out of it still. We’ve got four games to do that and, in my opinion, they’re games we can get results in.

“It’s all right me saying that, but we’ve got to do something about it.

“Will Miles took an injury which is a real disappointment. He was our best player against Kingstonian, but his ankle looks quite swollen. Toby Pointing’s ankle is quite sore, he was on the bench on Monday but he’s struggling.”

In a nervy affair against Kingstonian, the first half stayed goalless, but second-half Kingstonian goals from Ryan Moss and Joe Turner saw the home side leapfrog the Hillians into 20th, and out of the relegation places.

Chapman was pleased with his team’s performance but was disappointed with his side’s lack of quality when it counted.

“I can’t fault our players’ endeavour, they’ve had a go. We’ve just got to be more intelligent in possession in the final third. We lacked a cutting edge going forward.

“We weathered the storm after 15 minutes. We probably had our best period in the first 15 of the second half, and then we conceded a goal from a set-piece. We were then chasing the game and they caught us on the break and got a second.”

The result leaves Hill on 47 points, the same as the two teams above them but with an inferior goal difference.

Chapman wants a postive reaction from his players to propel his side away from danger. “I’d rather go in the relegation zone now and know what we need to do, rather than last year where we dropped into it in the last game of the season.

“I want the players to look at the league and understand we are in a battle. We’re the fourth worst team in the league as thing stands. What you can do is change that.”