WITH just six games of the regular season remaining, Chester Jets have been warned there is still plenty of hard work to do before a play-off place is guaranteed.
Club director Mike Burton is under no illusions as to the size of the task facing his team - and he is billing tomorrow's visit to Plymouth Raiders as a 'four-pointer'.
It does not get any easier for Jets, who entertain lead-ers Newcastle Eagles at the Northgate Arena on Sunday before rounding off the season with trips to Guildford Heat and Milton Keynes Lions and two daunting home meetings with title-chasing Scottish Rocks.
Burton said: 'If we're going to make the play-offs, we're going to need to get some results and it's a very tight situation in the play-offs now.
'Plymouth away is a four-pointer because they're in there and the fact Brighton had a point deducted for fielding an ineligible player could come into the mix.
'Hopefully we'll end up in the top eight but we've got three really, really tough games coming up at home.'
Burton feels Sunday's surprise home defeat to Birmingham Bullets could prove crucial in the end-of-season shake-up.
'If we'd won against Birmingham, we'd be seriously looking at a fifth or sixth-place finish and looking at playing London Towers in the crossovers,' he said. 'We're looking now at seventh or eighth and playing either Newcastle or Scottish Rocks and they're tough.
'It's a tough ask but we'll do our best.'
Jets tumbled to defeat against the rock bottom Bullets just 24 hours after snatching a stunning away win over London Towers.
Billy Singleton's men have been dogged by inconsistency all season and, for Burton, last weekend summed up their campaign.
He said: 'To be fair, Birmingham played very well. We struggled to raise our game after the night before. We've lost to a team who have struggled to win games all season. They have only won seven and two of those were against us. It's upsetting really.'
Burton added: 'It's been a difficult season. We've had a lot of changes and it's been difficult to get a settled team.'
