IAN Robinson can't help but wonder if Lymington & New Milton will pay the price for inexperience when the chips are down in the Wessex League title race.

Concerned by a lack of energy and desire in Saturday's 1-1 home draw with title rivals AFC Newbury, the Linnets boss admitted: "Apart from the three old codgers in the side - Paul Towler, Mark Watson and Darren Powell - the rest are all quite young, maybe not in years, but mentally. They have never been in this situation before.

"There's a mental toughness required to win every single game, but maybe some of our players are like rabbits caught in headlights, thinking: 'God, we have done well' but not knowing what to do next.

"We've got where we are in the league playing fast, flowing, attacking football, but we were a pale shadow of that against Newbury.

"There's going to be plenty of twists and turns in the title race yet and it's all about attitude from here on in."

Linnets briefly climbed to the top of the league last week when they played their game in hand over Winchester but, in Robinson's book, it was too soon to savour the high life.

He said: "Going top was of no great interest to me with a quarter of a season to go and I think it got to the boys a bit.

"Including pre-season friendlies we're coming up to 60 games played now and, if you include the FA Cup and FA Vase, we've had more success than any club in this league.

"But it's a big ask for the players to keep producing consistently high performances and maybe that will be our Achilles heel.

"Let's see how they respond tomorrow..."

As potential banana skins go, tomorrow's couldn't be any bigger. Robinson will come face to face with his old club, AFC Totton, who in January halted Linnets' 15-game unbeaten run with a 2-1 win at Testwood Park.

"It was just before our FA Vase trip to Billingham and we were woeful that night," he recalled. "I just hope we can give a better account of ourselves tomorrow."