LYMINGTON & New Milton boss Ian Robinson has seen at first hand that Sittingbourne's position at the foot of the Southern League Division 1 East is deceptive.

As his Linnets troops prepare for a five-hour trek to Kent tonight following Saturday's 1-1 draw against the Brickies in the FA Cup preliminary round, Robinson knows that, in reality, Sittingbourne are far better than their record of just one point from six league games suggests.

He said: "Their record's poor, but they're not a poor side. I spoke to Dartford manager Tommy Sampson before Saturday's game and he said that Sittingbourne's league position belies the way they play. Apparently they've been terribly unlucky in some of their games."

Having fallen behind to a 13th-minute penalty awarded against Paul Towler, the Linnets hit back through Darren Curtis on the stroke of half-time at Fawcetts Field.

The New Forest side could have gone on to win it, but Darren Crook headed their best second-half chance against the crossbar.

"It may be we've missed our opportunity, I don't know," said Robinson. "Sittingbourne have probably got a bit more to offer tonight, but then maybe they haven't seen the best of us yet.

"I'm not frightened of going there. I think we can do it, but we need to up it by ten per cent."

The ten-hour round trip is something the Linnets could have done without. "You get treated as a professional club because it's a professional competition, but asking players to take half a day off work is difficult when they've got wives and kids and mortgages to pay," Robinson reflected.

"We've got to leave at 2.30pm today and I wouldn't be surprised to get one or two calls from people dropping out."

Barring late withdrawals, Linnets will have a full quota of players, including Pete Smith, who is back from a seven-day suspension. Tonight's winners travel to Steve Beeks' Molesey on Saturday week.

Following two successive Ryman Premier defeats at the hands of Slough and Leyton, Salisbury City look to get back to winning ways away to Windsor & Eton tonight. Windsor sit fifth in the league, having slipped to their first league loss of the campaign, 3-2 at Heybridge Swifts on Saturday.