DAVE Tuttle admits that Burnham must improve their levels of fitness to have a chance of avoiding relegation this season.

Tuttle took over at The Gore back in November but has lost five of his first six matches in charge including a 3-2 defeat to rivals Marlow on Boxing Day.

Their poor run of form, now 10 matches without a win, sees them second from bottom in the Southern Division One South & West table with only pointless Bashley behind them.

However, Tuttle believes The Blues can compete at this level with improved levels of fitness and confidence.

The Burnham boss told the Observer: “It’s going to be very hard but the players are fully behind what we are trying to do.

“We have been working hard on our fitness over the last two weeks and will continue to do so as it is down. Our fitness and confidence is down.

“You could say that we need to bring in this and that but, at the end of the day, good players are already at clubs scoring goals.

“We will work with the players we’ve got but try to bring in a couple on loan to boost our chances.

“I believe that in the games we have played we’ve been competitive against better sides. We deserved a lot more against Wimborne Town but got beat again.

“We’ve been in games until 70-odd minutes until we lose them and I feel fitness comes into that.”

Commenting on the defeat at the hands of Marlow, Tuttle said: “It was one of those local derbies with two sides giving it a good go and trying to make the most out of bad conditions. We came off second best.

“We played a lot better in the second half and had chances to win the game, but I suppose they deserved it a little more than us. I was a very tough game and at the moment luck is going against us.”

Burnham begin the New Year with a trip to Didcot Town this Saturday (3pm).

Tuttle speculated: "Didcot will be a challenge to work out. They have struggled in the league but done very well in the FA Cup.

"They will have a different way of playing now, but it's up to use to see what we can get out of the boys. If they five us everything then you can't ask for much more."