Published: Thursday, 18th February, 2010 1:00pm

Struggling Robins on the brink

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Gary Smith was sent off as Bracknell endured another disappointing defeat at Taunton last weekend.

BRACKNELL Town boss David Tuttle has admitted his side "have a mountain to climb" if they want to beat the Southern League drop this season.

Tuttle had billed last Saturday's trip to relegation rivals Taunton as "one of the biggest games in the club's recent history," but it was the Somerset side who came from a goal down to secure a crucial victory.

Taunton then put further daylight between themselves and Bracknell on Tuesday night with an emphatic 4-0 win against Abingdon United.

The Robins now find themselves 14 points clear of the drop zone and Tuttle concedes his side will have to win at least seven of their remaining 17 games to have any hope of avoiding the drop.

That looks like an impossible task as Bracknell have won just one game all season, conceding almost 100 goals in the process, and have lost their last 16 games in a row.

Tuttle said: "It's looking bad now as we have to win at least another seven games before we can even think about staying up and that's championship form.

"But we've only won once this season so obviously the task looks extremely difficult now."

However, despite presiding over one of the worst seasons in Robins history, Tuttle insists he has no intention of walking away from Larges Lane.

"The club gave me the opportunity and I'm not going to walk away from here. The board aren't putting any pressure on me.

"It's not worked out for us this season but everyone is doing their best.

"It will be a very tall order to catch anyone now but we have to just keep going as there's no other alternative. No-one's giving up yet.

"We've still got to play Hayes twice and we're only seven points behind them so we'll keep working hard and hope we can catch them. The aim now has to be to try and finish second bottom."

The Robins face another couple of tough tests this week as they entertain Bishops Cleeve this Saturday and then travel to Uxbridge next Tuesday.

Bracknell should be at full strength for the games and will need to be at their best against in-form Cleeve who have picked up 14 points out of a possible 18 in their last six games.

Bracknell were left staring firmly down the barrel of relegation last weekend after crashing to a 2-1 defeat in their 'must-win' relegation scrap at Taunton.

Everyone at Bracknell knew the importance of last weekend's game but once again the players were unable to rise to the occasion despite taking the lead and it was Taunton who took a massive step toward securing their own Division One status for another season.

It was always going to be a scrappy affair between two struggling sides who had managed three wins between them all season, but Bracknell started positively in the early exchanges.

They took a deserved lead when Isaac Sedu fired them into a 20th minute lead after being set-up by Jamel Forde-Small - only the second time Bracknell had found the net in the last 10 games.

However, they still appeared to be celebrating that rare goal as Taunton kicked off and went straight up the other end to equalise within 30 seconds of the restart.

Bracknell keeper Dan Smith pushed Rodney Marsh's shot onto the post, but Craig Veal was on hand to tap the rebound home as the Robins celebrations were stopped dead in their tracks.

That hammer blow proved to be the turning point as the goal settled Taunton down and they bossed the second half.

They created several chances to take the lead and finally secured a deserved victory 11 minutes from time when Dan Short climbed highest to head home a corner from close range.

Bracknell's frustration boiled over in the closing stages and Gary Smith was sent off for picking up two yellow cards and Taunton were able to close the game out comfortably for their first win since August.

"Them equalising 20 seconds after we'd gone in front was a terrible blow," Tuttle admitted.

"If we could have held that lead then they might have started to feel the pressure but we switched off the restart, made a couple of mistakes and they were level right away.

"We just didn't perform in the second half and Taunton deserved to win the game.

"It was very disappointing as I felt they were there for the taking but we just weren't good enough on the day."

Bracknell: D Smith, G Smith, Dean Elliott, Weston, Cicero, Bradshaw, Mudge, Forde-Small, Sedu, Poulton (Elamir 55). Subs (not used): Blatchford, Abbott, Richardson, Bradley.

Former Robins midfielder Ian Dickens died of cancer last week at the age of 29.

Dickens, who also played for Uxbridge, Basingstoke and Fleet Town, made 19 appearances for the Robins, and the thoughts of everyone at Larges Lane is with his family.