'It doesn't get any tougher' - Pete Stiles' take on Fareham Town's daunting next two Wessex Premier fixtures

But the Reds boss heads into the testing battles with the slight satisfaction of an improved showing - despite a 5-3 home FA Vase second round defeat to Abbey Rangers on Saturday.

Fareham welcome second-placed Brockenhurst tomorrow night before making the short trip to table-toppers Horndean on Saturday.

Between them both Brock and the Deans have lost just five times in 36 league matches combined this term.

Stiles, whose side are without a Wessex Premier Division win in four matches, knows just how tough these next two fixtures will be for his players.

But he is hoping a positive result in either can arrest a recent slump in form. Stiles said: ‘Brockenhurst and then Horndean - it doesn’t get any tougher than that does it.

‘We’ve just got to get on with it, we’ve just got to keep going, the encouraging thing (against Abbey Rangers), that performance was far better than a lot of our recent performances. There was a lot of fight, a lot of effort, everyone was really digging in and trying hard.

‘Sometimes I think in some of our recent performances we haven’t shown that but we did (against Abbey), it was back to how I wanted it, but we got punished with two late goals.’

Stiles will assess his squad ahead of the meeting with Brockenhurst at Cams Alders.

Although the Reds boss is hoping to have both Ross Kidson and Stuart Morgan back for the visit of Pat McManus' side.