WEYMOUTH must treat their home battle with Eastbourne Borough as a “Champions League final”, according to boss Bobby Wilkinson.

The Terras welcome Boro to the Bob Lucas Stadium tomorrow (3pm) with just seven games to save their Vanarama National League South status.

Wilkinson’s men languish in 23rd spot and are five points behind Cheshunt in the final safe position of 20th.

However, Eastbourne are still in with a shot at the play-offs despite their placing of 11th, with four points the gap to Farnborough in seventh.

Wilkinson is therefore expecting a big tussle for the points, telling Echosport: “If you want to have a chance, you’ve got to beat Eastbourne, but we’ve said that too many times.

READ MORE: Weymouth reveal why Ben Thomson was subbed off against Poole

“Eastbourne are our next opponents and we’ve been playing really well at home on Saturdays. Hopefully we can turn up again and put a good performance on.

“Time’s running out, games are running out. If we don’t pick up some points really quickly it will be too late.

“We have to play it like it’s a Champions League final. We lost last week and played well, had loads of chances and didn’t win.

“That’s been the problem. We’ve won some big games and lost some easy games on paper. It’s that consistency.”

There also appears to be little hiding place for Weymouth this weekend, given they rested 12 players for the 4-0 Dorset Senior Cup loss to Poole in midweek.

Wilkinson said: “The team’s been basically the same the last eight or nine games.

“I couldn’t take a gamble on people like Rosey (Akheem Rose) or Brad (Ash) who are both scoring. Imagine if both got injured?

“We’ve been inundated with injuries all season. I wanted to win that cup for the club and fans but our number one priority is trying to stay in the league.

“We already know it’s difficult but while we still have that glimmer of hope, I have to keep going for that.

“We didn’t have to make changes, I just couldn’t play them. There’s a big difference. We’ve trained extremely hard and we’re going to keep fighting until the end.”

Wilkinson also revealed he has not looked at a potential points target to achieve safety.

“I’m just looking one game at a time,” he insisted. “We’ve had four or five opportunities to get out and as a group we haven’t.

“You just can never look too far ahead. I just need my boys to keep playing for the badge.”

Ben Thomson (hamstring) continues to be assessed but Luke Nippard (hamstring) remains the only injury absentee.