ATHERSTONE Town manager Mark Grainger is calling for his team to win at Coleshill Town tomorrow to end any lingering fears they will be relegated from the Midland Alliance.
Despite respectable draws against Gresley and Kirby Muxloe over Easter, the Adders are one place above the drop zone, six points clear of second bottom Highgate United.
Grainger says a win for Atherstone will see them safe, as well as boost their hopes of climbing up a condensed table.
He said: “It’s a crunch game. We need one more win to be safe.
“On the other hand they can still be dragged into it as well if we win.
“There’s a big incentive to finish the season well.
“The table is so tight. We can easily climb up into mid-table if we finish well.
“We’d already be 15th or 16th with our points tally if we were in the Southern League still. That shows how tight the league is.”
Atherstone will be without suspended central defender Dan Douglas and injured right-back Dean Johnson, but the rest of the squad is available.
“It will be tough to pick a 16. The lads have been tremendous so it will be hard to leave people out,” said Grainger.
The Adders put a major dent in Gresley’s title charge at the Moat Ground on Saturday as they drew 1-1 before holding Kirby Muxloe to a draw on Easter Monday.
While Grainger was pleased to boost the Sheepy Road side’s points tally, he felt they could have won both games.
“On paper it was two good points but it could easily have been six. We went to Gresley to stop them playing, which we did well.
“When we got 1-0 up we could easily have made it two straight after. They should have had a penalty to be fair, but we could have gone on to win it.
“There we 200 Adders fans there and they were fantastic. They gave us great support.
“It was the biggest crowd in the league this season so it was great to play well.
“Against Kirby Muxloe we knew they would lump it long. We had to weather the storm in the first half because of the wind.
“We came on strongly second half and could have won it,” he said.
ADDERS FROM: Hathaway, White, Sockett, Selvester, Douglas, Bailey, Boal, Ashby, Farley, Chapman, Holmes, Bahrey, Tucker, Baker, Mewies
