Skegness Town secure play-off place

Chris Rawlinson emphasised just how far Skegness have come over the last few years.

A 0-0 draw with Heanor on Saturday sealed fifth place for Rawlinson’s men, meaning a play-off semi-final at either Lincoln United or Loughbrough Students on April 20.

And irrespective of whether Skegness ultimately go up, Rawlinson was keen to emphasise just how far the club has come.

He said: “We’re relieved to get the place secured. It’s been hanging over our heads for quite a while in terms of only needing a win or two, though in the end it took a draw to do it.

"It’s a fantastic achievement. Skegness Town were a Lincolnshire League club seven years ago, so to now be in with a chance of promotion to step four is an unbelievable journey.

"The club had the foresight to build a new ground and so many have been on this journey the whole way through and here we are two games away from another promotion.

"As everyone knows, it becomes a lottery in the play-offs – all of the top five sides deserve to be there. We are the rank outsiders, but rank outsiders win and that’s the message we’re telling the lads.

"We had an awful run with injuries and suspensions, the latter we caused ourselves, but we’re starting to get our full squad back now and our performance on Saturday against a really good Heanor side was excellent, and had our finishing been better we’d have won comfortably.”

Skegness were due to welcome Lincoln United in the semi-finals of the League Cup on Wednesday night (10th), and it could well be United they’ll travel to in the play-offs too if they hold off the challenge of Loughborough Students who are a point behind going into the final round of league games.

Before that, however, Skegness will host AFC Mansfield in their final league game on Saturday.

Rawlinson said: “The initial instinct would be to rest everyone but actually I’m keen to build a bit of momentum and hopefully try and get two wins this week, so we’ll be sensible, but it won’t be a case of just playing the reserve side.

"The play-offs will be away so Saturday’s a chance to give our supporters something back and hopefully they’ll come down and congratulate the lads and we’ll thank them too for supporting us all the way through.”