Isthmian relegation crunch time arrives for Haywards Heath Town and Burgess Hill Town

Heath must win at Hythe and hope Burgess Hill and VCD, the two sides immediately above them, both slip up in order for them to avoid a relegation play-off.

The Hillians, at home to Beckenham, need to match or better the results of Heath or VCD to ensure they stay up.

The teams who finish 17th and 18th will face a play-off against the runners-up in the SCFL premier and SECFL premier with the winners of the one-off games going into next season’s Isthmian south east and the losers going down to step five.

Haywards Heath did their cause no good last Saturday when they lost 5-2 at home to Sevenoaks – defensive frailties sealing their fate despite the Blues fighting back to 2-1 and 3-2 with a Byron Napper double.

Boss Jay Lovett said early and late goals had done for them against Sevenoaks, something that also occurred at other times to hit their hopes of staying up.

He said he could feel the fans’ frustration at results and their plight but vowed that he, his backroom team and players would be doing all they could to stave off the drop in the remaining outings.

"It’s been a mixed bag of results lately,” Lovett said.

“We’ve had some good results, like drawing 3-3 at Ramsgate when we ought to have won. We can disruptr the top sides, but have let ourselves down on occasions too.

"Clearly we do not want to go down and will fight tooth and nail to try to save ourselves. I know I have players who will fight to the very end. We still have a lot of belief and fight and will carry that into any games that are still before us.

"The fans have been brilliant but I can feel their frustration at where we are in the table.

"We shouldn’t be there with the squad we have. We have under-achieved.

"If the worst happens and we go down to step five, it will not be straightforward to come back up.

"But wherever we are next season, we need to rebuild and make sure we come back stronger next season.”