Bury St Edmunds face a “season-defining” three matches in March, which will probably decide whether or not they are involved in an end-of-campaign relegation battle in National League Two South.

Despite a poor run of six successive defeats, and only one win in their last 11 fixtures, Bury remain three points and three places above the bottom three, going into this crunch phase of the season.

But they must cash in against bottom club Exmouth, who are tomorrow’s visitors to The Haberden, before travelling to fellow strugglers Barnes (next weekend) and Barnstaple (March 25).

It was back in November when the Wolfpack took on these three opponents, and they beat all three, including a 29-26 win at Exmouth on November 5. Their last home success was back on November 19, with a 33-27 win over Barnstaple.

“Certainly, these next three games are a real opportunity for us,” insisted Gavin Hogg, Bury’s Director of Rugby.

“They are season-defining games for us, although we must not try and look too far ahead. We want to get a good home win this weekend, because that will then set us up for the next two games.

“Two wins out of the three, or possibly 10 points from these three games, would put us in a good position, and put more pressure on the bottom three. It would make it very difficult for any of those teams to catch us.

“This weekend is our only home match of the month, so we want to make it count,” added Hogg.

Bury have strengthened their squad, since their last outing a fortnight ago (at Redingensians) , with the arrival of two new players in fly-half Glyn Hughes and flanker Dave Ellis.

Both will make their debuts tomorrow, and Hughes should have a big impact at No. 10, having played in the past for top flight clubs Northampton and Wasps, and also London Welsh before the famous old club folded due to financial problems at the end of January.

“Glyn (Hughes) will bring experience to the team, and some high level decision making,” explained Hogg.

““He has already fitted comfortably into our system. Thursday’s training session was as sharp as it has ever been.”

Donovan O’Grady will make his full debut at scrum-half, having come on as a substitute against Redingensians.

Ben Turner has not trained during the week, due to work commitments, and so will start on the bench with Arthur Marini starting in the second row.

Kick-off at The Haberden is 3pm.