Can Witton Albion keep their play-off fate in their own hands?

AS the race for a play-off place comes to the crunch, Witton Albion have the relative comfort of holding their fate in their own hands.

No matter what happens, Albion will finish inside the Northern Premier League West Division’s top five if they win both of their remaining games, but manager Jon Macken is well aware of the task ahead of them in their bid to keep control of their own fate.

Witton are among a clutch of teams battling for the four play-off spots, with second and sixth separated by just three points.

City of Liverpool's 2-0 victory over fellow contenders and local rivals Bootle on Wednesday allowed them to leapfrog both them and Albion and into fourth place, with Macken's men now outside the top five on goal difference.

How the NPL West Division play-off race looks heading into the weekend's fixtures (Image: FootballWebPages)

Albion travel to City of Liverpool on the final day in what could end up being a “winner takes all” clash but first, they face the stern task of a visit from champions Leek Town tomorrow.

“We want to win every game we play and that is still no different,” Macken said of the runaway title winners’ visit to the U Lock It Stadium.

“We’ve given ourselves a chance, which is all we can do.

“Our next game is going to be another really, really tough one – Leek are the champions so they’re not going to come and lie down. They’re going to want to come and beat us.

“We’ve got another tough challenge ahead but every game is going to be really hard because teams are fighting for things.”

Witton do go into the game in fine form – their 4-0 win at Trafford on Saturday was their third in a row without conceding a single goal.

The game also saw Cameron Fogerty and Callum Grogan make their returns from injury to add to Macken’s options, although they will be hoping for good news on a knock picked up by forward Joe Duckworth.

“From start to finish, we were excellent,” Macken said of Saturday’s victory.

“Everything we set out to do with our game plan, we stuck to it and it paid off.

“The only thing we can look it is we should have scored even more goals but to come from a goal difference of minus 15 at one point to plus four now is a good achievement in the timeframe in which we’ve done it.

“Performances levels were really high – we got Cam back today but Joe’s gone down, which is a disappointment but fingers crossed he’ll be alright.

“Callum Grogan came on and got a few minutes so we’re starting to get some players back.”