A surprise 2-0 defeat at home to relegation battlers Bromsgrove Sporting on Saturday left Spalding United seven points adrift of Southern League Premier Central Division leaders Harborough Town, with just five games to go.
However, results elsewhere meant Jimmy Dean’s team are guaranteed at least a place in the play-offs.
Defeats for Halesowen and Needham Market, and a draw for Quorn, means no-one outside the top five can now catch the Tulips.
A run of one win in four games during March has seen Dean’s men slip off the title pace, after losing just once in their previous 17. Ironically, the manager had been presented with the February club of the month award by the league.
“It was disappointing,” said Dean. “We wanted to win the game; we tried to win the game. The first half of the first half was good and we started positively. We should have had two or three early goals but were missing really good chances.
“Then we kind of went into that sleepwalking pattern that we’ve had recently, where we’re not really at the races for 20-25 minutes.
“For 25 minutes after half-time, it felt a little bit like the Alamo. We had lots of chances; hit the woodwork, three headers at the back stick, a good save from the goalkeeper.
“We didn’t put the ball in the back of the net and it always felt the longer it went on, we were open to a sucker punch.”
Sure enough, Luke Benbow put the visitors ahead with six minutes to go and in the tenth minute of stoppage time Shay Willock rubbed salt in the home wounds with a second goal.
“Over the last two or three weeks we’ve had plenty of opportunity to get ourselves right in the thick of this title race but haven’t turned up, for whatever reason,” said Dean.
“We haven’t quite had the mentality to get ourselves where we need to be. That hurts a little bit, but the season is far from over.”
Spalding need to get back to winning form quickly to ensure they get a home route through the play-offs, if they fail to overhaul Harborough for the single automatic promotion place.
Third-placed Real Bedford have narrowed the gap to eight points and have a game in hand so Dean is keen to see his team start picking up points again.
“We’re still second in the league,” he said. “We have to try and make sure we get a little bit of form and momentum now; secure second place, get the home ties in the play-offs and look forward to, hopefully, a couple of really big days.”
Making his debut for the Tulips was 21-year-old left back Bradley Grant. The former Leicester City junior was released by Burnley in January. He spent a month on loan at National League North side Marine last season but missed the second half of the year after rupturing a knee ligament.
Tulips: Wilks, White, Grant (Cybulski), Moore, Fox (Olopade), Thompson (McCammon), Sembie-Ferris, Bendle, Akinba (Fowkes), Sani (Pugh), Ceesay.
Attendance: 675.
