Stafford manager Chris Brindley has fired out the bluntest warning to his players yet – “If you don’t start picking up points, we are going down.”

Rangers slumped to a second successive defeat at home to Alfreton on Tuesday night, their seventh game without a win in the Blue Square North.

But the loss was not capitalised upon by their rivals below in the bottom six, only Farsley Celtic managed to win with Redditch recording a draw.

So the buffer for the Marston Road men remains six points but, with a thankless task to title-chasing Southport on Saturday, they could be back in the unenviable position of hoping their relegation rivals slip up again.

With the likes of Alfreton away, Tamworth and league leaders Gateshead still to come, Rangers will likely be up against it on more than one occasion to come.

But Brindley is accepting no excuses, one of those opponents must fall.

He said: “We have got to pick more points up, it’s as simple as that. If we don’t pick up any points between now and the end of the season, we are going down – it’s as simple as that.

“The last two performances haven’t been that bad, we have certainly deserved to pick up more points than we have. We are doing alright, the performances have been better and we just need that bit of luck to go our way – which doesn’t tend to happen when you’re at the bottom.

“We have deserved a few more points than we have actually got, but thats football. We have to get on with it and keep putting in the effort we have been doing.”