Suter refuses to concede defeat in relegation battle

28 February 2008

A DEFIANT Horsham YMCA boss John Suter refused to concede defeat in the battle to avoid relegation despite his team slipping further from safety. Saturday's disappointing 2-1 defeat to Corinthian Casuals leaves YM second bottom of the league and nine points from their nearest rivals with only eight games to play. With a tough end of season run-in to avoid the drop, Suter recognises the ' size of the task ahead but is refusing to throw in the towel just yet. Suter said: "No I'm not conceding anything, 'but the fact of the matter is we have two teams above us who are nine points in front, which means in real terms we need to win three and draw one game more than those teams. "So if they win one, we need to win four. "And if we want to catch Casuals we need to win four games more than them in our last eight games." Suter had targeted the game against Corinthian Casuals as a chance to get their season back on track, but said a lack of goals had again cost them three points after failing to add to James Grant's individual effort. "We've just played the side who were one above us and we couldn't beat them," said Suter. "We are struggling to score goals, which means we are struggling to get points. "Our goals against isn't very many considering the position we are in in the league. "We very rarely concede more than a couple of goals a game, but we rarely score more than one goal a game. "We are the lowest scoring team in the league." YM's next fixture is away to mid table Whyteleafe, and after missing two penalties in the 1-1 draw earlier in the season, Suter feels his team must get something from the game. Suter said: "I felt we didn't do ourselves justice in the game on Saturday, we didn't play as well as we have played in the past, and I know we can play better. "Saturday was very important but Saturday's history now - we have to look to the Whyteleafe game and try and get three points there. "Every game you play you don't play for promotion or relegation but for the three points that's on offer. "A lot of people may say it's over and done with, but it's not over and done with yet." Having never tasted relegation in 53 seasons as a player or manager, Suter is hoping he can achieve his biggest challenge to date and keep YM up.