Lowestoft Town boss Dale Brooks admits his side are in a 'dogfight' to avoid relegation after the Blues twice blew a two-goal lead at Wingate & Finchley before going down to a 4-3 defeat.

The Trawlerboys looked well on course for victory on Tuesday evening as goals from Harvey Hodd and Shaun Bammant gave them a 2-0 lead. Despite Wingate reducing the arrears Matthew Foy made it 3-1 before the break but it all went horribly wrong in the second half and two goals in the last five minutes condemned Brooks' side to defeat.

Brooks couldn't hide his disappointment at seeing his side fritter away points that would have gone a long way to putting some distance between them and bottom-placed Tooting & Mitcham. The former Southend coach admitted his squad lacks experience to get themselves out of their predicament but can't bring anyone in to address this.

'Our sole purpose is to try and stay in this league,' said Brooks. 'We can't bring in a lot of players to help us out - when you are in a dog fight then you need a special character.

'We've got a few lads who have been there and seen this sort of thing before and we've got some inexperienced lads that need to be up for the fight.

'But we aren't in a position to bring in what we need at this time.

'Every player, member of staff, board member, every fan – if they thought it was going to be any different to this then they are not seeing the true picture.

'We need the players to continue fighting like they are and we need the real supporters to stay with us.'

Brooks admitted injuries to the likes of Rossi Jarvis, Andrew Fisk and Rory McAuley aren't helping his side's cause ahead of their trip to Margate this afternoon (kick-off 3pm).

'Rossi Jarvis is one of our warriors but he is going to be out for another two or three weeks - we've not been able to protect him as much as I would have liked,' he said. 'We've obviously been without Fisky (Fisk) as well due to injury and Rory McAuley was ill on Tuesday night. I think if we had one of those players (against Wingate) then we would have held on for at least a point. That experience is vital at this stage.

'We've got to collectively roll our sleeves up and perform to the best of our abilities.'