A five-star Easter Monday derby day demolition of Stamford means the door to promotion remains ever so slightly ajar for Spalding United.
They go into Saturday’s match at Barwell needing a high-scoring win, coinciding with defeats for their three play-off-chasing rivals.
Manager Jimmy Dean knows his team have a chance to extend their season and said: “Anything can happen on the last day of the season.
“Yes we need to score a lot of goals and other teams need to lose but we’ve taken it to the final day after losing six of the first seven and we’ve fought and fought.”
The Tulips trail fifth-placed Harborough Town by three points and nine goals, so will need a big win at relegation-battling Barwell, and a heavy defeat for their rivals in their last game at AFC Sudbury. They also need Stamford to lose at home to Halesowen Town and Stratford Town not to win at St Ives Town in order to leapfrog all three teams in the Southern League Premier Central Division standings.
It is a tough task and Dean acknowledged that draws in their previous three games had proved frustrating to their promotion ambitions.
“We could have done better in the last three. We had chances,” he said, looking at other instances of points dropped. “We’ve lost games to last-minute winners and not converted when we’ve had opportunities to do that.
We lacked that ruthless streak, that clinical edge that we showed today.
“Yes, there’s been frustration but this club is only going forward. If it doesn’t happen this year maybe it’s not the end of the world. We’ll get our infrastructure right off the pitch and restart a little bit. We can take some good from a bad situation.
“We aren’t giving up and we’ll do the very best we can on Saturday and see where it takes us.”
The Tulips ensured they would still be in the mix going into the final day with a stunning display to earn a 5-0 win in front of more than 900 fans at the Sir Halley Stewart Field.
Needing a win to stay within reach of their county neighbours, Spalding did that and also doubled their goal difference.
Spalding had only Dan Lawlor’s 20th-minute penalty to show for the first-half efforts and almost conceded an equaliser soon after the break when Stamford hit the bar. However, that was the closest the visitors came and three goals in 14 minutes turned the match decisively in favour of Spalding.
Jack Roberts crossed for James Clifton to smash home the second goal after 62 minutes and 11 minutes later Joe Nyahwema’s persistence paid off when he drilled in the third.
Roberts then cut inside and fired in No.4 after 76 minutes and the nap-hand was completed in the last minute with man of the match Nyahwema’s neat finish.
Manager Dean was pleased to see his players respond to the derby atmosphere: “It was important for the players and the staff to show how much the badge and the club meant to them today and I think the boys did that. They put their bodies on the line.
“We beat them physically, beat them with the ball and beat them with set-pieces. It was as convincing as it could be.
“The pitch played well; slick and soft and wet, which helps our transitional game. Stamford came to have a go to get three points and that played into our hands a little bit.
“They put us under a second-half ten-minute onslaught but we stood firm Stamford were unlucky not to score when they hit the bar from a corner but after that it was a case of how many. A good day at the office!”
The 5-0 win extended the Tulips unbeaten run to seven games, with just one goal conceded in their last five, but if that will be enough to secure a trip to Bedford Town or Kettering Town in the play-off semi-finals will be decided on Saturday.
Tulips (v Stamford): Chapman, Brown (Sano-Sani), Fox, Moore, Cartwright, Lawlor, Sembie-Ferris, Sherif, Clifton (Cybulski), Roberts, Nyahwema. Subs: West, Freeman, Law.
Att: 901.
A third draw in a row saw the Tulips frustrated at AFC Sudbury on Saturday.
Tulips (at Spalding): Chapman, Brown (Ngandu), Fox, Moore, Cartwright, Lawlor, Roberts (Law), Freeman, Cybulski (Sherif), Sano-Sani, Nyahwema (Sembie-Ferris). Sub: West.
Att: 449.
* A bucket collection was held to raise funds for club captain Glenn Walker, who needs an operation following the injury he suffered against AFC Telford United.
