THE next three games could well go a long way to deciding if Hartley Wintney can survive the drop from the Combined Counties League Premier Division.

The village side are currently bottom, but they face the sides just above them in a triple whammy of crunch games.

First up is a home game against Colliers Wood on Saturday (kick-off 3pm), followed on Tuesday night by a trip to Ash United and then a week on Saturday they are at Dorking.

Hartley will hope to complete the double over Colliers Wood, having beaten them 4-3 in December, when Ryan Stephens slammed in a hat-trick.

Manager Ben Dillon is aware of the importance of the next three games and said: “We feel we can win all three games and it would be nice to get a run going. We have been training hard on Tuesday and Thursday and then come Saturday it is disappointing the game is then cancelled.”

Last Saturday, Hartley lost at high flyers Windsor 5-2, but produced a much better second-half performance, having gone in at the break two goals down.

The home side made it 3-0 before Hartley opened their account as Jason Graham was brought down and Stephens scored from the spot.

Windsor then scored twice more before the visitors netted their second as Graham put away a Stephens rebound.

On Tuesday night the side were due to play in Farnham, but an early afternoon pitch inspection saw the game postponed.