TONY Sullivan, Witton Albion’s manager, has told his players they can’t relax after climbing to the highest position in the table since he took charge.

A 1-0 win at Marine on New Year’s Day leaves them six points clear of the relegation zone ahead of this weekend’s trip to Stourbridge, where they will attempt to win three successive matches for the first time this season.

And after securing victory in five of their past eight games, Sullivan has warned against wandering minds.

“It’s not job done,” he said.

“When we’re no longer at risk of going down, then fine. But right now, we’ve achieved nothing.

“At Marine we enjoyed as big a victory as we’ve had in my time here. It’s a massive result.

“We’d have been happy with a point away from home if you’d have offered that to us but three more points, a clean sheet and back-to-back wins – I’ll take that!”

Jamie Rainford scored the only goal against his former club as Albion completed a first league double of the campaign, his sixth strike in the past five fixtures.

But Sullivan told the Guardian that collective spirit, again, had made the difference.

He said: “They had a spell in the second half during which they threw everything at us.

“But we’re resilient now, and can take a couple of punches without falling down.

“In the past when teams have come knocking, we’ve let them in easily.

“Marine were on top when we scored, but we hit them with a classic counter-attack didn’t we?

“The longer the game went on I felt it would be one moment, one flash, that settled it.

“Thankfully we came up with it.”

Witton will again be without Sam Barnes for tomorrow’s encounter.

It means Sullivan may well have to call again on 17-year-old Danny De La Bastide, promoted from the reserve team, to bolster his squad.

“This week has been tough with Ben [Harrison] leaving and Sam being away on holiday,” he added.

“Zac Corbett hadn’t eaten for 48 hours prior to the Marine game, and probably shouldn’t have been out there.

“Instead we gave him a Red Bull and a Mars bar and he went out and had his best game for us.

“Two kids from the reserves have helped us out again too, while Jamie Henders filled in at left back to help us out during the final few minutes.

“We’ve got a group now that believe in me and what we’re trying to do.”