SALTASH United go into Saturday’s home game against fourth-placed Sidmouth Town looking to end a run of eight games without a victory in the Western League Premier Division after the 5-1 midweek mauling by Newquay at Kimberley.

And manager Lee Britchford has insisted the only way to get through this mini crisis, which includes four successive defeats, is to stick together and work harder.

Britchford said: “Clearly something’s got to change with us because we’re not getting the results that we did towards the start of the season.

“We’re in a bit of a sticky patch at the moment, but as a group we’re aware of that and we’ve got to start taking responsibility and make sure we work together to turn this form around.

“We stressed after the Newquay game the importance of working together and making sure we’re working hard to turn the results around because that’s the only way we’re going to get out of this poor run.

“We’ve got to make sure we’re ready and raring to go on Saturday against Sidmouth, which will be a very tough game.”

Tuesday’s result sent Newquay above the Ashes in the race for a promotion play-off place, and the Peppermints now look a much stronger prospect for a top-five finish.

Britchford said: “Full credit to Newquay the other night, they were miles the better team from 1 to 16, so there were no complaints about the result from our point of view.

“I think we let ourselves down in all aspects of the game. We conceded five really poor goals, something we’ll be looking at.”

Saltash’s last league win was on November 1 when Brislington were beaten 2-0 at Kimberley. The Ashes drew their next four games and have followed it with four defeats.