DEJECTED Southport boss Andy Preece says his side can still retain their National League status despite the home defeat to Torquay on Saturday.
Southport's Jim Stevenson cancelled out Luke Young's opener but a late goal from Ruairi Keating gave Torquay the vital three points at Haig Avenue.
The result means the Sandgrounders are still rooted to the bottom of the table and now seven points adrift of safety with ten games remaining.
However, Preece's side have gained just one point from his five games in charge and know that must improve drastically if they are to have any chance of staying in Non-League's top tier.
The boss says he still believes the Sandgrounders can pull it off and he has previous having guided Northwich Victoria to six straight victories at the end of their doomed 2008-09 campaign.
Preece told the Southport website: “We tried to be positive (on Saturday), we had two or three really good opportunities to go ahead and they've done us on the counter.
“It's hard to say something I've not said before. It hurts me to keep thinking the same things but we've got ourselves in this position and we need to get out of it.
“I still believe we can. We've got ten chances and we've got to take six of those. The past five or six games, we could have won them all. If we keep working hard and doing the right things you've got to get a result.
“I'm not one for giving up. When I was at Northwich, we won the last six games of the season – it can be done as long as everybody keeps pulling together.”
