PETERSFIELD Town chairman Graeme Moir surveyed his club’s season to date and declared – we’ve got a lot of hard work ahead of us.

Saturday’s 3-0 home defeat at the hands of Barton Rovers marked the exact half way point of the league season, which has seen the Rams muster only eight points from 21 matches in Division 1 Central of the Southern League.

A half term report on Petersfield’s progress this campaign makes far from happy reading but Moir stresses no one has given up in the Rams camp yet.

“The fact we have completed 21 league games against the background of what has happened at the club in the second half of this year is pretty amazing on its own,” Moir said.

“We’ve used a lot of players, more than a handful of different coaching staff and a whole lot more has gone on in the last four months or so.

“If you take 40 points as the target to get each season to keep you safe from relegation, we have to get 32 points from 21 games – that’s not an impossible task but it looks very big when you only have eight points from your first 21 games.

“The target remains the same as when we set out at the start of the season – ten wins and a handful of draws will probably be enough for safety. We’ve got two league wins, now we just need to find eight out of the next 21 league matches.”

Petersfield have some respite from the league campaign tonight in the form of a Russell Cotes Cup tie at home to Wessex Division 1 side Hamble Club.

While cup football is not the focus of Petersfield’s attention right now, these games can still serve an important purpose in helping the league campaign.

Moir added: “We’re on a bit of a hiding to nothing tonight – Hamble are two levels below us so most people will expect us to win by a decent margin.

“However, they are absolutely flying in their league at the moment and they are a good side with some fantastic players.

“We know the issues we have to deal with and we are working through them. Cup ties like this give us another 90 minutes of football and a chance to work on a few things outside of the league programme.

“We will still be going out there to win every cup game we can and a win and some goals would certainly help to restore some confidence to our side after a poor run of home form.”