AFC TOTTON are in no mad panic to get out of the Evo-Stik Southern One South & West this season.

But chairman Andy Straker is confident that if the Stags do go up sooner rather than later, they would hold their own back at Premier Division level.

After floundering for the first half of last term’s Premier Division campaign, Totton’s inexperienced, young side got to grips with the league and so nearly pulled off a miracle escape from relegation.

A year on those youngsters have matured and, with Totton’s financial problems eased by the sale of their Testwood Stadium home, they have been able to modestly strengthen the squad with the likes of Craig Feeney, Stuart Mott and, most recently, Mike Gosney on loan from Gosport Borough.

Following Gosney’s arrival, the Stags embarked on a sizzling run of five straight wins, propelling them right back into the play-off picture after their strong start to the season had faded.

They lost for the first time in 2015 at Larkhall last Saturday, but will be itching to put that right tomorrow at a Didcot Town side who have yet to recover from their 5-3 Testwood Stadium defeat on January 6.

Going into that game the Railwaymen were third, undefeated in 17 league outings.

But the off-colour Oxfordshire outfit have not won since that night and now find themselves seventh, just two points and three places above the re-charged Stags.

Both clubs are still well within reach of the play-offs and Straker has confirmed that if promotion was there for the taking, Totton would grab it with both hands.

He said: “When Hereford United (wound up for financial reasons in December) came into the Premier Division, we said to the league that they wouldn’t last the season.

“If they hadn’t come in, we could have stayed up.

“If we had, we would have finished bottom-half of the Premier but we would have been solid.

“I’m confident we would hold our own in that league now.

“We’d have to strengthen in a couple of places, but we wouldn’t try and buy the league.

“We’d do it with hard work, determination and with a system to bring our own young players through.

“If it wasn’t for our under-18 squad we would have vanished last year when we were up against it financially.

“Even at this level money talks, but we want to do what Southampton do, bringing Academy players through.

“We’ve got to get away from this culture of paying players £300 a week.

“That’s not what we’re about.

“We’re paying wages, but they’re at a level the club can afford.

“We can’t go to Gosport and say ‘give us Justin Bennett and we’ll pay him £350 a week’.

“We’ve tried that in the past and it’s gone horribly wrong.”