SWINDON Supermarine manager Lee Spalding believes tomorrow’s Southern League Premier Division South fixture at home to Basingstoke Town could be labelled as a relegation six-pointer, despite the league not yet having reached the midway point.

Marine put in a sub-standard performance last weekend as they went down 3-1 away at Chesham United, but had gone on a three-game winning run before that.

Meanwhile, Spalding’s side also booked their place in the Wiltshire Senior Cup semi-finals in midweek after a 4-1 demolition of Melksham Town.

Marine currently find themselves 20th in the table, but could move up three spots with a win at the Webbswood Stadium on Saturday.

And Spalding has been encouraged by his side’s recent form, but says they must keep on winning if they are to move away from the lower echelons of the league.

He said: “It’s almost a six-pointer on Saturday, if you look at where both teams are in the league table.

“It’s so tight at the moment, it’s just a case of putting a few wins together and we could be halfway up the table, but if we lose a couple, we stay where we are.

“We need to make sure that we’re really kicking on and I’m confident that we’ve got a good group here and we’re heading in the right direction.

“I watched Basingstoke a couple of weeks ago. They’re a good side, very organised, fit, big, strong, so we know that it’s going to be a really tough game and it’s important that we turn up and do things right and we’re ready for them.

“It’s a good opportunity for us to put right what happened last Saturday and take from what we did in midweek into the Basingstoke game.

“If we can play some of the football we did on Tuesday against Basingstoke, then we’ll cause them problems. That’s what we’ll be looking to do.

“In the last four games, we’ve won three of them, so we’re in good form at the moment and we’ll go into Saturday full of confidence.

“If we want to get up the league, then we need to keep on winning games.

“We’ve had a look at everyone now and we’re coming into the second half of the season.

“We now know what the league is about. We know what’s required and I’m confident that with the group of players we’ve got, that we can keep on winning games.”