NUNEATON Town need one win from their last two games to all but guarantee a play-off place after Saturday’s 0-0 draw at Solihull Moors.
Boro might have dropped down to fourth in Blue Square Bet North, but rivals Stalybridge Celtic lost and Worcester City drew to leave Nuneaton with a three-point gap to sixth.
They have a vastly superior goal difference compared to both sides, meaning a win at home to Colwyn Bay next week or at relegated Blyth Spartans on the final day will realistically be enough to wrap up the top five finish they crave.
However, manager Kevin Wilkin insists Boro are not there yet and have it all to do still.
He said: “It’s still all to play for. Next week is a massive game.
“It’s still very much in our hands so we need to do the job now.
“You would much rather be in our position than those chasing us.
“There’s still plenty of work to do so we have to stay strong for the next couple of games.”
The Boro boss must hope his players do not live to regret failure to beat a Solihull side that played for 40 minutes with 10 men after former Nuneaton man Danny Spencer was sent off.
Spencer saw red five minutes after the break for an off the ball kick on Danny Glover.
Wilkin said Spencer’s actions were indefensible.
“I didn’t see it but it looks like he’s kicked him front of everyone.
“You can’t defend that. It was needless, but that’s Danny Spencer. He gets involved in those incidents when he doesn’t need to.
“He’s a good player but he loses control in those situations. You’ll pay the price if you take a chance like that,” he said.
Despite the man advantage, Nuneaton rarely threatened a winner. In fact, Wilkin believes Solihull should possibly have snatched the points after missing two one-on-ones.
“It was frustrating. They set their stall out not to play against us and looked to restarts.
“Against 10 men we didn’t keep our patience and we tried to force the issue when we didn’t need to.
“The disappointment was we didn’t work the goalkeeper.
“You look at it and they’ve had the better chances. We got caught out chasing it and pushing on.
“Fair play to Neil Collett, he’s stayed sharp earned us a point.
“We didn’t have enough quality into the box, we didn’t make the keeper work and we gave away some silly free-kicks.
“All those things compounded the situation. Throughout the side you need to be patient and sometimes you need a lucky break of the ball.
“It didn’t quite happen but we tried to play on a tough surface.
“There weren’t many chances but the best of them fell to them.
“We’ve been on a good run. We expected to win against 10 men, but the lads have been brilliant.
“We’ve had an intense run with a small group.
“Look at the bench. Mark Noon is not great and Graham Ward is making up the numbers.
“Everyone has been really honest and it’s not for want of trying we didn’t win,” he said.
