GARRY Burdett is confident Halstead Town will regain the form they need to stay at the heart of the Thurlow Nunn League division one south title race this season.

However, the Humbugs defender says they need to quickly get themselves on a run of positive results to find the confidence that has been knocked by some inconsistent form in the opening part of the campaign.

Halstead's opening to the season has been hit by injuries to their squad and results have often not gone the way they would have expected them to.

Burdett admits it hasn't helped them but he doesn't think it will take too much for them to regain their self-belief as he knows the talent and quality is in the squad to make sure they are title contenders in April.

He said: “I think we are taking the losses too personally and it’s knocking a bit of confidence out of what are very good players.

“But it will only take one or two results for us to find that belief again and I think, once we do that, we will get back to the standards we set for ourselves.

“Results have definitely not been showing the team that we are and that’s a worry.

“It’s a season where four teams will go up and we’ve been out of those places.

“We’d much rather be in them now and winning games, but the unit is tight and we are all aware of what we need to do.

“We just need to get our game together for 90 minutes and play with the intensity and fight that we need over two halves, not just one.

“The results will come.

“But we have to get on that run to get the confidence back.

“You can’t change a mentality in training; as hard as you try, it is the feeling of winning on the pitch that will instil the confidence back in all the players."

Halstead are sat ninth in the division one south table after blowing a two-goal lead and losing 3-2 against Benfleet last weekend.

They have the frustration of a blank Saturday coming up but then return to action on November 9 when they host Newbury Forest in the league at the Milbank Stadium.

Burdett feels it will kickstart an important period for the team.

He added: “It is a very important spell coming up, but as you can see from the league, there are only a few with a minus goal difference so it is a very open league.

“But for us, we have to get there and get there quickly.

“We lost eight games in the entirety of last season and finished third and we’ve lost more than half that already so we are going to have to go on a hell of a run this year.

“It has to start very soon and we’ll do everything we can to turn it around for the club and the fans.

“As a group of players, we are desperate to win for each other and we’ll be fighting for results by hook or by crook to get our season going again."