Skegness hope for exciting few weeks to round off season

Chris Rawlinson expects a frantic end to the season.

The Lilywhites are firmly in the play-off zone going into the closing weeks of the campaign, with the onus on them now to cement that place despite a busy run of fixtures not helped by recent postponements, including the home game with AFC Mansfield last weekend.

But Rawlinson says it will be an exciting time for the club, so plenty of games shouldn’t be a problem.

He said: “It was frustrating to have the game called off on Saturday, but we gave the lads a weekend off to refresh, because although there’s an argument for the league to extend the season by a week, we have to plan for a busy final four weeks with eight games and a cup semi-final so we’ll probably be playing two games a week for the final few weeks of the season.

"That’s great because you want to be involved at the top at the end of the season – there’s nothing worse than just being 15th and going through the motions.

"So we’re looking forward to it – it’s going to be a busy spell but we feel it’s going to be very productive for the football club.

"We’ve worked so hard to get to where we are, we simply can’t let it slip now.”

Skegness are on the road this weekend as they prepare to visit Ashby Ivanhoe.

Rawlinson said: "We went to watch Ashby win 4-1 at Pinchbeck last weekend, but they’re having to play Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday this week so they’re going to be tired and don’t have a massive squad, so we have to use that to our advantage.

"The game will be played on the 3G pitch at Quorn and we haven’t been great on 3G this season, so I’m hoping for an upturn in our fortunes there, but we’ve got some ideas and we’ll work on some stuff in training because Ashby have a couple of games between now and the weekend and if they win them they’ll be in with a shout of the play-offs too, so it’s an important game.

"So we’re looking forward to the challenge and a very busy four weeks, and hopefully the lads, staff, committee and supporters can all have something memorable to remember the 2023/24 season by.”