Corinthian Casuals boss James Bracken still believes they will make the play-offs, but he has admitted their fate is out of their hands.
Bracken also suggested that clubs who have little to play for this season have been rolling over against teams fighting for the top spots – much to his displeasure.
Saturday’s 3-0 win at Walton & Hersham, thanks to goals from Shaun Okojie, Sekou Kaba and James Cottee, lifted the Casuals to within one point of the Ryman Division One South play-offs.
It was also their fifth consecutive win and fourth clean sheet in a row ahead of the season’s penultimate clash at Walton Casuals this weekend.
Casuals sit on 79 points, one point off the crucial fifth spot with two games left.
Last season, 81 points was good enough to make the play-offs and the season before, just 78 points.
However, this time round Faversham Town (80 points), Hastings (80 points) and Casuals are vying for the final place.
Bracken said: “We’d be extremely unlucky if we were to get 85 points and not make the play-offs.
“We still believe. All we can do is approach the seven games positively and win all of them.
“We’ve won five in a row with four clean sheets and two games left. If we achieve the seven wins, but don’t get into the play-offs, then clearly it’s still not been good enough.
“But it’d be very unlucky not to be good enough.”
He added: “You couldn’t foresee that in the position we’re in, if we won all seven, we wouldn’t make it.
“Realistically, if we won all seven games, we’d get there. I still think we will after the last two games.
“We’re reliant on other results and when you look at how they went on Saturday – a 7-0 and a 5-1 – teams are obviously under-performing at this stage of the season that shouldn’t be.”
Pictures: Stuart Tree/DeadlinePix
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