MATTY Holmes says his Wimborne Town side need to iron out “silly mistakes” to pick up the points their performances deserve.

Ahead of Saturday's game against Tiverton Town at KoolPak Stadium (3pm), Holmes's charges are unbeaten in six home matches.

But Magpies put more pressure on their home form after a defensive error last weekend at Merthyr Town scuppered a gritty and battling effort.

A 2-0 defeat left Wimborne 17th in Southern League South, just two points above the bottom three.

But Holmes insisted his squad had remained upbeat.

"You could argue we've been losing games and we are in the bottom half, so confidence is going to be low," said the Wimborne manager.

"If you are not playing well and you do not look like you will get anything out of games that is when your confidence gets hit and you struggle, but we are far from it.

"We are like a nearly team at the moment. At some stage we need to make sure in the 90 minutes people keep position and don't make silly mistakes. Then, hopefully, the points will start to arrive more regularly.

"We have got to start picking up points in games when we have been playing well, which is not quite what we have been doing so far.

"No-one has 90 minutes on top, apart from a couple of Premier League teams. In the periods when other teams are on top you have to weather it and look at how you can nullify their threats to work back into games.

"We could have a couple more points and be higher up the league but we are in this situation and we have to keep believing and fighting.

"We have to enjoy the ride because we never expected to be here. We have a wonderful opportunity and the lads are going to fight tooth and nail to the death to make sure we become an established side at this level."

Boss Holmes says he will have selection headaches for the match against ninth-placed Tiverton, who have won just one of their past eight league games after victories in five of their first eight.

"We are confident but we know we are up against a strong Tiverton side, who have started the campaign reasonably well," added Holmes.

"We played them a lot over the past couple of years until they got promoted. They are a strong side, good defensively and they have a real threat in Levi Landricombe up front. We are going to have to be aware of him.

"If all our boys do their jobs which they have been doing recently at home, especially defensively, then we will be looking for a good result."

Magpies: (from) Benfield, Penny, Lee, Hester, Davidson, Oldring, Clarke, Francis, Young, L Holmes, T Holmes, Flynn, Burbidge, Maybury, Arnold, Collins, Stokoe.