JAMES Croker is refusing to press the panic button as he desperately tries to mastermind Oakmeadians’ bid for South West One East survival.

The free-falling Meyrick Parkers’ were pipped 15-10 at Walcot as they slumped to a seventh successive league reverse.

But Croker felt he saw small improvements in the Dorset side’s performance after they scored through James Cameron (try), Harvey Bell (conversion) and Jamie Tryska (penalty).

And he feels the key to last season’s Southern Counties South champions avoiding a quickfire return to that division is getting his players to believe they can stay up.

Asked how confident he was of his side avoiding relegation, Croker said: “I’m not even concerned with that, if I’m honest.”

Croker, whose strugglers have seven games to get themselves out of jail, added: “It’s literally going to be taking one game at a time, although I know that’s a cliché.

“It’s like a striker in football. He suffers a goal drought, then he sneaks one in off his backside and then goes on another scoring run.

“We just need to get a win, even if it’s ugly, to get back on track, but it’s just pigeon steps for us at the moment.

“We’ve got to try and go up another notch and we certainly have the players to do it.

“They just have to believe in themselves.”

Croker, whose side conceded three tries at Walcot, said: “We had more opportunities to score, but silly mistakes and lapses in concentration cost us. It’s getting tight in the division, but we have quite a nice run in.

“It was another step forward on Saturday. It’s just a bitter pill to swallow when you lose by five points rather than 30.

“We almost have to learn to lose before we can learn to win.”

Oaks, just one point above safety, still have to meet four of the bottom five, Trowbridge (home), Olney (away), Salisbury (home) and Wootton Bassett (away).

Their other games are against Marlow and Bletchley at home and Wallingford away.

Oakmeadians: Korabai, Burenivalu, Drummond (Ciriki 60), Hare, Notobartolo, Tryska (Kier 60), Bell, Cameron, Stephenson, Smith, Croker, Hudson, Coughlan, Davies, Flower. Unused sub: Porter.

<•>Swanage & Wareham ground out a 15-5 triumph at basement boys Wootton Bassett with tries from Ollie Andrews and Peter Sammons. Phil Graves added one conversion and one penalty as the Bestwall boys stormed into a 15-0 half-time lead.

Swans: Dunsford, Blackmore, Graves, Cottrell, Wilcox, Parish, Sammons (Collins 68), Frampton, Elford, Andrews (Audley 72), Burgess, Penney, Tomes, Jacobs, Wright. Unused sub: Corsie.