GRIMSBY Town's bosses are refusing to give up on achieving automatic promotion after suffering "a nightmare week."
The Mariners crashed to their third successive defeat on Saturday, as Cambridge United left Blundell Park with three points.
That 1-0 reverse followed losses to title rivals Mansfield Town and Kidderminster Harriers, leaving the Mariners ten points adrift of the Stags and top spot.
Despite that, co-manager Rob Scott again called for calm – and insisted that a Football League return remains possible for his fifth-placed side.
"Everybody will be pressing the panic buttons but we can't do anything about that week," Scott, pictured, said.
"It's been a nightmare. We've lost three games but if that had been spread out over the last 26 games then it doesn't look as bad.
"But because it's come in the space of seven days it knocks confidence a bit, knocks belief and makes it look worse.
"We certainly need to go on a run of winning games sooner rather than later, but I'm sure we'll bounce back. We'll have to put it right and get back on a run. "There are ten league games left. If we win six, seven, eight of those then you never know. "That puts you right back up there. Everyone's got to play everybody else as well at the moment, so not everyone can take maximum points." Scott insists Town must focus on their own matches and hope the form teams Mansfield and Kidderminster slip up. And that begins tomorrow evening with a trip to struggling Nuneaton, while the rest of the Conference's top-four play each other. "We can't look any further than our results and we're not asking people to do us favours," Scott added. "We need to do our own jobs first of all. Until we do that, everything is irrelevant. "Teams have runs of wins and runs where they have a bit of a dip – peaks and troughs. "It feels like we've been in this for months because we've had three defeats but it's only been a week." "We've certainly had a bad week. Our performances have been all right without getting the right results. "We're concentrating on smaller parts of it. That is getting a win tomorrow first, restoring a little bit of confidence and belief, and then we'll look at the next game. "We won't look at chunks – it's too late in the season now to do that. It's each game as it comes on its own merits."
In Pictures: Grimsby Town v Cambridge United
"We certainly need to go on a run of winning games sooner rather than later, but I'm sure we'll bounce back. We'll have to put it right and get back on a run. "There are ten league games left. If we win six, seven, eight of those then you never know. "That puts you right back up there. Everyone's got to play everybody else as well at the moment, so not everyone can take maximum points." Scott insists Town must focus on their own matches and hope the form teams Mansfield and Kidderminster slip up. And that begins tomorrow evening with a trip to struggling Nuneaton, while the rest of the Conference's top-four play each other. "We can't look any further than our results and we're not asking people to do us favours," Scott added. "We need to do our own jobs first of all. Until we do that, everything is irrelevant. "Teams have runs of wins and runs where they have a bit of a dip – peaks and troughs. "It feels like we've been in this for months because we've had three defeats but it's only been a week." "We've certainly had a bad week. Our performances have been all right without getting the right results. "We're concentrating on smaller parts of it. That is getting a win tomorrow first, restoring a little bit of confidence and belief, and then we'll look at the next game. "We won't look at chunks – it's too late in the season now to do that. It's each game as it comes on its own merits."
