THERE are lies, damned lies and statistics and Marlow’s recent form proves just how malleable the facts can be.

To the pessimist, Marlow have won just two of their last 12 games and are sliding down the table – to the optimist they have lost one in eight.

Manager Mark Bartley said: “We’ve had a sequence of draws and maybe we could have done better in one or two of those games. But this year was always going to be a learning curve and it was all about staying up.

“I’m pleased in terms of our progress and where we are.

“We want to get to 40 points as quickly as possible and then see where we can go from there.”

Marlow bounced back from their 4-1 defeat to Chalfont St Peter with a 0-0 draw with AFC Hayes last weekend and tomorrow they host Aylesbury United while Chalfont St Peter entertain Aylesbury hoping to make it a hat-trick of wins and a fifth game without a loss.

A hard-fought win over North Greenford United got them going and a draw with Uxbridge preceded a 4-1 demolition of Marlow and Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Chertsey.

On a pitch that had been under-water just hours earlier, they had to roll their sleeves up to take all the points courtesy of Asen Valchev’s penalty after 76 minutes.