WAYNE Mew has credited manager Louis Langdown and his assistant Adam Wilde with keeping spirits high during a testing time for AFC Totton.

Despite a recent budget cut that has seen Nick Watts, Ashley Jarvis and Jack Vallis exit, while the future of record appearance maker Mike Gosney remains in the balance, the Stags have all but guaranteed themselves Southern One South & West survival with back-to-back wins over Yate and Didcot.

Mew, who took over as chairman just prior to Christmas when Andy Straker stepped down due to ill health, said: “Louis came in with one chairman and vice-chairman (Roy Edwards) and now a miserable, tight bloke has taken over who’s trying to balance the books!

“Louis and Adam have been party to that and they’ve kept the team spirit going. The atmosphere around the whole club is good.

“The young lads Louis has brought in from AFC Bournemouth (Connor York and Curtis Young) have been excellent and young Harry Medway’s had two or three decent games (on loan from Havant & Waterlooville).

“The supporters have been fantastic and we’re still getting gates of over 200.

“The problem we’ve got is that we only have one home game in March and that’s why we had a players’ meeting and proposed a wage cut for six weeks.

“Most players accepted it, but some didn’t and decided to move on.

“The ones that stayed have pulled to together as a squad and put in two excellent performances.

“We’ll see things through until the end of the season and hopefully push on from there.

"We're working on getting some decent pre-season games lined up."

Meanwhile, Totton are hoping Slimbridge’s extraordinary exploits of the last week have worn them out!

Langdown leads the Stags to Gloucestershire on Saturday for an 18th v 19th showdown against a Swans side who have turned the form book upside down.

While Totton were busy beating mid-table Didcot 2-1 last Saturday, Slimbridge jolted play-off chasers Evesham 2-1 on their travels.

On Wednesday the Swans were at it again, upsetting second-placed Tiverton 5-2.

Langdown said: “Slimbridge have brought a few new players in and whether that's made a difference, I don’t know, but they've had back-to-back wins against sides in the top four.

“It looked like they played in a strong wind and a downpour midweek, so maybe that’s taken it out of them – I hope so!”

Returning striker Mark Gamble will not feature for the Stags at Slimbridge having cut his eye in training.

AFC Bournemouth loanee Pat O’Flaherty takes over in goal from Charlie Searle, who has gone back to his parent club Havant & Waterlooville at the end of his permitted loan spell.