Matt Long came over all Curtis Mayfield when he urged his bee-leaguered team-mates to keep on keeping on.

The Birmingham & Solihull veteran was part of the side, albeit only briefly until a hamstring forced him from the field, which slipped to an eighth reverse in nine games last Saturday.

Jersey were the latest team to inflict defeat on the National One strugglers, although it should be remembered that Bees’ recent opponents have all been drawn from the upper echelons of the division.

There is a chance heavyweights such as Jersey and Rosslyn Park have left Bees punch-drunk but Long remains hopeful that as long as they keep working hard, a run of slightly more benign fixtures could present them with an opportunity to escape the bottom of the table.

“We have got to keep working at it, there is no alternative,” the 38-year-old said. “We have been close against so many teams and we must take every game as one we can win. If you go in thinking you can’t there’s no point turning up.

“We can do it, we have proved we can do it and that’s the frustrating thing. You could understand why bad results happen if you never play well but we have beaten Wharfedale, Cinderford, Blaydon and Macclesfield but have then followed up with two or three poor performances.”

Player-coach Russell Earnshaw is back in charge now after missing the last three weeks because of his ommitments with the England Sevens.

Earnshaw returns to find three more losses on the scorecard and a team low on confidence.

“He and Eugene (Martin) will sit down and devise a way forward. Whether that means playing a more constricted game I don’t know but I trust them to come up with something.”

What is clear, though, is that it is not matches against Jersey, Fylde and Rosslyn Park in which Bees must measure themselves.

“I was talking to Ben Harvey after the match and he was telling me how much Jersey have improved since we last played them,” Long continued.

“They have got some decent guys in the backs, some ex-Premiership and ex-Championship players and you could tell the difference.

“We have got young lads picked up from around the area playing to the best of their ability and the effort and enthusiasm of the guys has been as good as anything we’ve ever had.

“Of course that means the disappointment when things go wrong is huge and that’s what we have been feeling this season. But we can turn it around.”