DARRAN Brown has admitted that Slough need to put points on board to avoid a relegation scrap later on in the season.

Back-to-back defeats early on in the New Year have seen The Greenies fall to ninth in the BB&O Premier table and just three points above the drop zone.

Their most recent loss, 37-14, came at the hands of league leaders Gosford All Blacks on Saturday though Slough did impress in the second period.

The Greenies have had no luck with injuries all season, but Brown knows his team must pull together to steer clear of a fight for survival.

“We always knew it would be a tough one on Saturday,” Slough’s head coach told the Observer. “Gosford are a fairly decent side with two or three standout players.

“We started very slow with two new players and one more coming back from injury who had not played for three or four years. We’ve got players coming back from injury which is good, and there were some positives.

“We were well down at half-time but controlled the game for the last 20-30 minutes. We just could not quite get that penetration to take the ball over the line.

“Gosford have given some teams a real good hiding so for us to shut them out in the second period begs the question what might have been had we played like that from the first minute.

“Everyone played well but it is a case of getting people together again and working as a matchday squad. We are 20-30 per-cent off at the moment but that will come.”

Brown added: “Our position is not one we obviously want to be in. We want to finish as high as possible but injuries have effected our push forward.

“We have not started 2016 very well and are in the bottom four and have to get out of that.

"Teams around us are staring to pick up points and we must do the same.

"We have had new players join and it is now about bedding them in and seeing what they can bring to the club."

Looking ahead to the visit from Hungerford this Saturday, he said: "They had a great result last weekend putting 60 points on the board, so they may have got players back in and turned a corner.

"Hungerford will be coming to Tamblyn Fields looking for a win."