DESPITE the threat of relegation looming ever nearer for them, full-back Andrew Eleftheriou is adamant that Braintree Town's players still have faith that they can stage a great escape at the end of the Vanarama National League season.

Logic would suggest that the Iron are going down as they have just six games remaining, sit rock-bottom in the table and are 17 points away from safety, but the Watford loanee insists there is still a positive feeling within the dressing room.

Eleftheriou feels the team have shown they can stand toe-to-toe with the best in the division and knows that if they can replicate that form in the next half dozen games, then they will give themselves the best possible chance of beating the odds.

“Our thoughts are definitely still that we’re not down until we are actually down," he said.

“You can’t go into games thinking that you’re down because we know that if we perform like we know we can then we can match anyone in this league.

“We have a very good squad in every position and on the bench where everyone can add quality to the game and I always think we can win.

“There is no team that we look at and we’re scared of.

“We know if we perform as we should perform then we can get the wins and until it’s physically impossible for us to stay up then we shouldn’t believe that we’re down.

“You saw it in the Sutton game; we went there and won 3-0 and if we can replicate the way we performed in that then we can beat anyone in the league.

“It’s a tough run-in we have, but we played Salford – a team at the top of the league – and put in a great performance and beat them and then went to Solihull and gave them one of their toughest games of the season.

“We had chances there and could have got points against a team sat second so just because teams are higher than us in the league doesn’t mean they are better than us on the day.

“If we perform as we know we can then we are confident we can win."

Braintree continue their survival fight with a home game against Gateshead on Saturday (kick-off 3pm).

However, if they are to pull off a miraculous escape, Eleftheriou knows that performances will have to be markedly improved from the one they had in the first half against Bromley last weekend when three goals were conceded on the way to a 4-2 defeat.

He added: “It was really frustrating because we made a decent start in the first ten minutes and then conceded a sloppy goal.

“I thought we had the better of them in the first ten minutes or so and I thought we’d have chances and create more stuff.

“But goals can obviously be turning points in games and that’s what happened unfortunately.

“We then kind imploded after that first goal.

“They grabbed the second relatively quickly and it was frustrating to see us switch off, but I felt we fought back in the second half and we restored some pride with how we played then.

“But it was tough after being 3-0 down."