Attention now turns to the play-offs with some mouth-watering semi-final encounters taking place on Wednesday evening.
In the Pitching In Southern League Division One South, there’s a local derby as third-place Cribbs, who finished on 66 points, welcome a Bristol Manor Farm outfit who were one place and seven points behind them.
“We know we are in for our toughest game of the season so far,” admitted one of the key cogs in the Cribbs’ wheel, Ross McErlain. “They’re the in-form team in the division and we know how good a side they’ve got.
“Momentum is huge in football so they go in to it with the momentum as we’ve known our position in the League for the last couple of weeks and have definitely lost a bit of that momentum as a result, even though we’ve put in a couple of decent performances in our last two games.
“That said, this is a one-off game and we’re at home, where we have an unbelievable record over the last couple of years.
“We are chomping at the bit to get out there; for most of us it will be the biggest game of our careers. We’ll approach it the same way as we always do; we’ll get our preparation in terms of tactics and analysis spot on and then the rest is up to us to go out there on the night and put in a performance.
“Both teams know each other inside out and I would honestly say there isn’t a lot between us, so it’ll be whoever turns up and puts in the best performance on the night who will go through to the final.”
For Cribbs, this is their first-ever season at this level.
“The season has had its up and downs,” McErlain continued. “But realistically we’ve absolutely smashed our target going into the season, which was to stay in the division.
“Every single person at the club would have bitten your hand off for a mid-table finish in August, so to be where we are now is an unbelievable achievement in itself.
“Obviously, a huge amount of credit has to go to Luffers [former manager, Richard Luffman], who put this side together and got us playing in a way that won football games. We were all gutted when he moved on, but that’s football and Muz [manager, Steve Murray] has come in and been fantastic.
“He’s not changed a huge amount as it wasn’t needed, but he’s come in with fresh ideas and got the best out of the players and carried on our form to get us a comfortable play-off place, with three games of the season left to play.
“The League has been good this year; one thing about the Southern League is that you can’t just turn up and expect three points against anyone. Some of our toughest games have been against sides who have finished in the lower part of the table.
“We were in a title race for a while with Wimborne Town and Frome Town, but realistically with our recourses and squad size, it became on step too far. Huge congratulations to Wimborne who thoroughly deserved the title and are 100% ready to move up to Step 3 football.
“To be up against all these established Southern League clubs and finish third is an unbelievable achievement and a credit to every member of our playing squad and coaching staff.”
The other play-off semi-final in Division One South sees Frome Town play host to Mousehole, who have really ended the season strongly.
Please note that all play-off semi-finals across our four divisions are played over one leg only.
IMAGE: Cliff Williams
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