March Town United manager Chris Bartlett says he could not fault his players in their 2-1 loss at Dereham Town Reserves last night.

The Hares, up against a very strong Dereham side, took the lead on 31 minutes through Liam Merryweather, who headed in Jordan Fiddes’ cross.

But, three minutes later, Dereham levelled, and they sealed the win mid-way through the second half.

It was March’s second straight loss, after Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to Halstead Town in their last home game of the season.

Bartlett said: “Saturday was really disappointing. We never got going. Despite that, we created enough chances to win the game.

“However, it was a really good performance from us against a very strong Dereham side. Our attitude was good and we played the game in the right way.

“The players deserve credit for the way they played. It was disappointing not to get anything out of the game.”

With one game remaining, March are seventh in the Thurlow Nunn First Division. They are level on points with sixth place King’s Lynn Reserves and two points behind Haverhill Borough.

In Saturday’s final round of fixtures, March are at Debenham LC, King’s Lynn Reserves travel to Leiston and Haverhill visit Halstead.

Bartlett expects them to win their games (depriving March of a top six spot), but he is determined for his side to finish the season, which has been full of encouragement on and off the pitch, on a high.

He said: “We’ve been decimated by injuries in the past six weeks to high profile players - I don’t think any team could have lost 43 goals up front (Dan Woods and Denny Escorcio) and not have their form suffer.

“But we’ll drag whoever we can to Debenham and, without a doubt, we’ll be looking to finish the season well.”