Yatton will be drawing on the experienced gained from previous brushes with relegation in their bid to pull clear from the danger zone in South West One West.

Victory last weekend at home to basement side St Mary's in a proverbial four-pointer helped the North Somerset club clamber above Sidmouth to third from the bottom.

And with matches on the horizon at home to fellow strugglers Torquay Athletic and away to Ivybridge, Yatton are gearing up for what could be a season-defining stage of the campaign.

Director of rugby Ian John said: "My gut feeling is that because of the geographical shake-down three teams will be relegated.

"If we can get ourselves out of the bottom three then we won't need to rely on anyone else.

"We're no strangers to battling away like this. In recent seasons we've finished third and fourth from the bottom and survived, and I think that experience will help us.

"We're certainly not frightened about where we are. We're essentially still a village club and we all take a lot of pride from being in this division and competing against some of the big-town sides.

"We've got a very strong colts side coming through, and it would be good to maintain our status so we can provide high quality rugby for them.

"There's still a real buzz here and we're all feeling good about the way things are going, apart from the results. People aren't depressed, we're rolling up our sleeves and getting on with the job.

"If we had everyone available then there's no doubt that we would be consistently playing much better and the results would be better too."