Lancaster City boss aims to prolong play-off push

The Dolly Blues hopes of finishing inside the top five were dealt a severe blow on Tuesday night.

After battling to a 0-0 draw at league leaders Buxton – their 14th point from an unbeaten run of six games – City moved to within five points off fifth-placed Warrington Town.

However, the Wire won their game in hand in midweek – a 1-0 win at Basford United – which saw them leapfrog above Scarborough Athletic into fourth level on points.

It now means a four-point gap has opened up between the bottom two teams in the play-off positions and the chasing pack, with City a further four points further back.

Fell concedes it will take a miraculous turn of events for his men to secure a top five spot with four games left.

He has urged his men to concentrate on securing all three points this weekend at home to struggling Witton Albion which will set them up for the following weekend when they Stalybridge Celtic on the Saturday followed by Easter Monday’s derby fixture against fellow play-off rivals Bamber Bridge at Giant Axe.

"We have got to win all our games,” said Fell. “It will be nice to win these next two games and set up a big bank holiday Monday game.

"We really want to get as many people as we can inside Giant Axe for Saturday’s game against Witton.

"We need to win if we want to be up there and they are still fighting for their lives.

"If somebody had said to us at Christmas that we would still be playing for something with four games to go then we would have been really happy with that. We had great support on Saturday and we need that support than ever this Saturday.”

Fell had a special word of praise for his goalkeeper Curtis Anderson who pulled off some excellent saves to earn a point against Buxton. The former England youth international was in fine form as he earned another clean sheet – his fifth in the last six games.

"We didn’t give up a lot of chances but when they did get chances, they came up against Curtis Anderson.

"He was outstanding and made two or three outstanding saves first half. He commanded his box and gives us confidence.”