STEVE Hollick admits he is feeling the heat as AFC Totton manager after another miserable week for the club.

“The pressure is definitely on,” he confessed after the Stags slumped to a sorry 4-2 Russell Cotes Cup defeat at lower league Sholing last night.

It came a fortnight after an embarrassing 3-0 Hampshire Senior Cup exit at Wessex One side AFC Stoneham and just days after the Stags had been outclassed 4-0 at home by Banbury, leaving them fourth-to-bottom of the Southern One South & West just three points above the drop zone.

They travel to 17th-placed Burnham on Saturday and rookie boss Hollick – appointed Steve Riley’s successor towards the end of last season - knows another poor result would inevitably heap more pressure on him from the club’s increasingly restless fans.

“Totton’s a great club to be at, but there is such high expectation here and there are a lot of comments being bandied around and some of them are hurtful,” Hollick admitted.

“Andy (Straker, chairman) and Roy (Edwards, executive member) are doing a fantastic job, we’ve got some decent sponsorship coming in and things are progressing well off the field. The trouble is, it’s not transferring into the team.

“Totton's fan base is good and the stadium’s fantastic, we wouldn’t swap it for the world, but the cost of running it is a massive drain on resources and it’s trying to balance that with having a competitive playing budget.

“Although we’ve got great facilities here, it’s difficult to coax players out of the Wessex League where the furthest away trip is 45 minutes. The Wessex is so strong that sometimes it’s detrimental to Southern League clubs.”

Totton’s current squad are all committed to the Southern League, but the more the results go against them, the more difficult it becomes.

“We conceded some sloppy goals at Sholing and you could see the confidence ooze out of them,” said Hollick.

“I’ve got massive faith in the guys, we've got some good players here, but a performance like that makes you question everything.

“We were full of promise at the start of the season but, for some reason, it hasn’t materialised and that reflects on me because I’m the one leading the troops out.

"It's all geared up to be successful and, when we don't deliver, all the fingers get pointed at me."

Nathaniel Sherborne and Marc Diaper should be back for Saturday and Totton are working on renewing defender Jack Simpson’s loan from AFC Bournemouth.

But Mike Gosney faces another couple of weeks out with knee trouble and Dave Allen suffered ankle ligament damage against Banbury last week.