ROSS Adams says a number of his Highworth Town players have their futures on the line over the closing stages of the campaign.

Inconsistency has been the buzz-word for the Worthians co-boss recently as his charges put in a disappointing display to lose out at Moneyfields last weekend.

The Portsmouth outfit sit third-bottom of the division, albeit comfortably clear of the relegation battle between the two sides below them.

But after Highworth were unable to make their first-period dominance pay, a defensive error cost them the only goal.

All that came on the back of a strong display at AFC Totton that yielded nothing more than point in a 2-2 draw.

If any of his players want to remain at the Save On Tyres Stadium for next season, Adams wants a final kick to prove their worth.

“It’s just a case of turning some of these results,” he said. “We’ve drawn a lot of games that we could have got three points out of and that’s the difference at this level.

“We’ve said to the lads between now and the end of the season, a lot of the players are playing for their place.

“If they want to stay here next season the ball is in their court because we’re very up and down at the moment, we need to get a little bit of consistency in our performances, that’s what we’ll be looking for.”

Rarely will a better chance to score a first win since February 1 present itself to Highworth than this weekend’s home game against Mangotsfield United.

February saw the resignation of manager Ollie Price with a number of players following him out of Cossham Street.

That chaos sees the Mangos currently up against it on a seven-game losing run.

Adams, however, is more worried about the performance levels his own team put out on the pitch.

“I played with their old manager who’s recently left and they’ve had a lot of changes take place on the back of him leaving,” he said.

“They’re going to be a completely different side from what they were when we last saw them.

“To be honest with you, we’re at the stage now, me and John (Fisher), where we’re more concerned with what sort of performance we’re going to get from our players than what we’re playing against.

“We know if we turn up and play to our potential we can match a lot of teams in this league.

“The problem is we’re very inconsistent with our performances and that’s the worrying thing; you don’t know from one week to the next what we’re going to get as a side.

“We’ve shown that if we don’t turn up we look very average, if we do turn up we can give most teams in this league a game.”