Relegation issues at the bottom end of the football pyramid are far from clear but Lordswood can remove any doubts with a win on Saturday.

Lords head into the weekend occupying the second of two relegation places in the Southern Counties East Premier Division but league realignment next season means they would be safe on points per game as things stand. Anything other than a win for Lordswood at the weekend could have them reaching for the calculators.

Both Lordswood and Rusthall are level on 23 points but the Medway side sit second from bottom on goal difference.

Sawbridgeworth from the Essex Senior League will also be taking a keen interest on what happens in the SCEFL this Saturday.

They are currently the fourth-worst step five team in the country, with a points per game average of 0.615, slightly inferior to Lordswood’s 0.622. Four from 16 teams who sit second bottom at step five level will be relegated, the rest reprieved. Lords are currently the last of the 12 teams who would escape relegation on points per game.

It paints a complex picture but all boss Richard Dimmock needs to tell his players is that winning is all that matters.

They host mid-table Holmesdale in their final game this Saturday.

Asked what his message to his players will be, Dimmock said: “Just go out and put everything on the line, leave it all on the pitch, just one last push. We have come a long way.

“When I first came in we were on about eight points, I believe. A lot of people thought we were down and out. I always believed we could get out of it and it has come down to the last game of the season.”

Lordswood have just had a couple of thrilling matches over Easter, taking three points from their two games.

They lost 3-2 to Kennington on Monday. Dominic Wynter-Stephens and Josh Reid both scored to cancel out goals for Kennington but the Ashford-based side netted a third.

“We had two really good chances to nick a draw in the last five minutes,” said Dimmock.

“We missed a sitter, one-on-one with the keeper, and a header with virtually the last action of the game. I was frustrated because we had gifted them the three goals from three individual mistakes. At this level that costs you.”

Prior to that, Lordswood had beaten K Sports on Saturday after a thrilling climax.

Vinnie Medhurst put them ahead before K Sports equalised with 15 minutes to go. The visitors were awarded a last-minute penalty, which the Lordswood keeper saved, and they then went up the other end and won it through Wynter-Stephens.

“George Bentley saved the penalty and he has been magnificent in the last three or four weeks,” said the Lordswood boss.

“I was like a nervous wreck at the end of that game!”

There were celebrations at the end but a broken ankle for key man Grant Brown was a blow. Philip Makinde is back this weekend after suspension and there are hopes Chris Mirrlees can get over a back injury.

Dimmock said: “We’d seen Rusthall got beaten in the early kick-off on Monday and we said, ‘look boys, there is an opportunity here to put us in the driving seat’.

“I said to them after, I couldn’t knock their efforts but they need to learn from their mistakes - you get punished for them.

“It all comes down to the last game now.”

If Lordswood better the result of Rusthall - who host Erith & Belvedere - then the Tunbridge Wells outfit would drop to second bottom, with their fate decided on points per game.

The club’s final game of the season is free for kids and adults can pay what they want. Kick off at the Bill Bishop Memorial Stadium on Saturday is 3pm.

Medway neighbours Chatham Town, meanwhile, broke a goalscoring record on Monday as they continue to push Sheppey United every inch of the way for the Southern Counties East Premier Division title.

They put seven goals past fourth-placed Deal Town, without reply, to take their goals scored total to 120 from 37 games, moving them to 97 points. With only 19 conceded their goal difference is 101.

Their scoring record this season betters anything the club have achieved, topping 117 in the 40 games of the 1994/95 Kent League season, a year that, coincidently, they finished as runners-up to Sheppey.

Chats - with promotion already secure - are two points off the island side ahead of their final game on Saturday. Kevin Hake’s men finish a fine campaign away at Erith Town.