Burton Albion manager Nigel Clough said that 'nothing is decided in October' after watching his side fall to a 4-2 defeat to Barnsley at the Pirelli Stadium on Tuesday night.
The Brewers have now lost five out of their last seven league games and currently languish in 23rd position in the Championship on only ten points out of 15 games.
The team are currently two points from safety and possess the worst defensive record in the whole of the English second tier.
'We're not even in November'
Clough though, who was in charge as Burton stayed up in their first-ever campaign in the Championship, insists that it is far too early to be thinking about relegation.
He said: "We went nine without a win I think last season in November December. Nothing is decided in October. We’re not even in November yet. As much as people will look at the table and think with our current run that we’re rightly probably favourites to go down but nothing is decided yet."
The 51-year-old also told that his side's poor fortune is one of the contributing factors as to why his side are languishing in the drop zone and hopes that it changes sooner rather than later.
Clough continued: "We don’t deserve to lose at the moment but we are. So that is what is hurting everybody. We’re either getting punished by a little bit of quality or every little mistake we make at the moment but hopefully that will change."
"If it doesn’t [change], it won’t be a surprise to anybody. We’re bookies favourites to finish bottom so we’re just fulfilling that at the moment," he said.
'It is very, very harsh'
The Brewers' boss continued to bemoan in his side's fortune in the loss to the Tykes on Tuesday night. Burton twice came back from behind to go into the break drawing 2-2 before Barnsley netted twice in the closing stages to take victory, one being a wonderful strike from distance from Joe Williams.
Clough said: "It was the same as Saturday. Two games, it should be six points but it’s none. It is very, very harsh on the players performances that we’ve got no points. Very, very difficult to take really. You know the lad [Joe Williams] scored the goal and he’ll never score one like it again. That’s the difference between the two teams."
"We should have done better for the first two goals. We came back into it, 2-2 at half-time. We were on top and all the way through the second half up to the third goal," he continued.
Burton Albion will again attempt to lift themselves out of the relegation zone on Saturday afternoon as they clash with Millwall.