Garry Kimble feels much of the Ryman League premier division relegation battle could well be fought by the time the long Easter weekend finishes.

The Witham Town manager will lead his team into a crunch three-day spell that he believes could either make or break their bid to beat the drop back into division one north.

They head into today’s home game against promotion-chasing Dulwich Hamlet (kick-off 3pm) sitting fourth from bottom following last weekend’s 2-1 defeat at East Thurrock United.

And with just one win in their last six outings, Kimble knows there’ll be no room for faint hearts in a weekend that will conclude with an Essex derby at Canvey Island on Easter Monday (kick-off 3pm).

“It’s still close, but it’s a massive game coming up for us against Dulwich Hamlet,” said Kimble.

“It’s a must-win game for us and we need to take three points from it to take into a mouth-watering fixture down at Canvey on Easter Monday.

“I think a lot of it will be sorted out after Monday.

“Everyone will have three games left then and we’ll all know where we stand.

“We’ll know where we are and hopefully we’ll be in a good place.

“It will all be down to individuals – how they handle the pressure and if they want to stay in the Ryman Premier.

“To be honest, my team talks have been quite low key for the last couple of games.

“I’ve been positive and even though I haven’t necessarily been happy with the results, I’ve been pleased with how we’ve played in the last three or four games.

“It’s down to the players to go out there with a smile on their face and be positive.

“There are five games to go and we have to make sure we win on Saturday.

“It will be whoever has the bottle to stand up to the pressure will deserve to stay up.

“I hope our boys take that on board for the next five games because I think we need to win three out of those five.”