MANAGER Mark Ashford says Witham Town's players need to trust what they are being told to do and keep believing to drag themselves clear of the Bostik league division north danger zone.

Recent defeats by, Soham Town Rangers, Aveley and Tilbury have left Witham rock-bottom of the table ahead of Saturday's trip to Felixstowe and Walton United and they know they have to pick themselves up soon to not get cut adrift of sides above them.

The frustrating thing for Ashford is that he has seen his team dominate for long periods within these games and he said those were spells when players had kept to their gameplan, so he wants them to stick to the systems that he and his coaches have put in place and trust what they are being told.

He said: “There are times in every game where we dominate and play some great football, but we haven’t been able to do it from minute one through to 90.

“That’s something we spoke about quite harshly in the dressing room after the game at Tilbury.

“We have just played three games – Soham, Aveley and Tilbury – and conceded nine goals.

“We can bleat about bad luck and not getting the run of the green but you can’t be unlucky all of the time.

“There has to be some honesty there and we left the group to talk about that between themselves and we all need to go away and reflect on it.

“We all need to look at ourselves quite honestly so we can turn up at Felixstowe and Walton on Saturday and do what we need to do to dig ourselves out.

“I asked them to talk as a group because I feel we need to be more of a team and they need to recognise there are periods in games when we are on top.

“Against Soham, we dominated the second half for a long period, then against Aveley, we dominated the first half despite conceding early, and then against Tilbury, we dominated after half-time.

“In all of those periods, they are playing how we have asked them to play – the rest of the time they aren’t.

“So there has to be an understanding as a group that when they do the things we have been working on in training, they do well.

“Basically, they have to trust the system and what we have asked them to do.

“In doing that, we will have more longer periods of the game and they have to keep believing.

“We have a way of playing because we have a lot of technically gifted players so play that way.

“If we do, as we’ve shown in recent games, we will create chances and it will come, but the players have to keep believing in what we are doing.

“I think there is a fear to play football at times and that may be a result of the position we’re in, but we have so many technical players and we’re not set up to play long-ball football.

“We haven’t got a group of big physical lumps, we have a group of technically good players who are able to play football and when we do that, even against the best teams in the league, we have shown we are a really good side.

“You can imagine how frustrating it is for me.

“But it has been like that for a while where we play well for a period when they do what we have asked them in training but then there are periods when they don’t stick to it and it hurts us.

“We need to have a look at that.

“Everyone – management, staff and players – have to ask themselves what they need to do better.

“The points total and our league position does not reflect the team that we are and it’s a real kick that we are being judged by people who aren’t seeing our games.

“People from the outside are thinking we’re just not a very good side and that’s the disappointing thing because it doesn’t reflect on the players as it should.

“They are a good group of lads and they are honest enough to have it out between them, but if it becomes a watershed moment off the back of this then it’s still early enough in the season that you can turn things around quickly.

“But it has to be something that happens sooner rather than later.”