Crunch sequence key for Brindley

Stafford Rangers manager Chris Brindley believes a sequence of four league games in the next 10 days will be the biggest decider yet of whether the club will stay up.

The crunch period begins with the visit of relegation-threatened Hyde United on Saturday, before a trip Farsley Celtic on Tuesday - who stand a point behind Rangers in mid-table going into the next set of fixtures.

Then comes a home double-header with promotion-chasing Alfreton at Marston Road, before the rearranged fixture against strugglers Redditch on the following Tuesday.

Rangers go into battle with one defeat in their last six league games, a run that has lifted them into mid-table although all but Redditch, Solihull Moors and bottom club Redditch below them in the table have games in hand.

It represents a real chance to put further daylight between themselves and the bottom four and, after only beating the drop with a game to spare last term, boss Brindley is keen to avoid a repeat.

But if the wheels come off in the next four games Rangers could be sucked right back into it, and the manager is also too keen to remind his players of what is at stake.

He said: "It's a big period now, we have got four games in the next 10 days against three sides below us in the league. Avoiding relegation is still in our own hands, and I think at the end of this sequence we will all know where we stand.

"There will not be any easy games, teams below us are fighting for their lives and many of them have games in hand over us."