Lancaster City need seven wins from last 10 games to have any chance of reaching the play-offs, says boss Mark Fell
and live on Freeview channel 276
It was the third successive defeat for the Dolly Blues – a frustrating run considering they defeated NPL Premier Division leaders at the time Matlock Town early last month.It would appear any hopes City had of reaching the play-offs are slipping away. They currently trail fifth-placed Warrington Town by 13 points with only 10 games of the season left to play.City were the dominant team in the first half against Trinity but failed to take their chances and they went behind on the stroke of half-time.The second half saw the hosts take control to go 3-0 up with the visitors seeing goalkeeper Curtis Anderson red-carded for handball. Sam Bailey’s late spot-kick was a mere consolation.“They had two attempts in the first half and scored from one,” said Fell. “We have had countless attempts and not scored.“Their first goal was a little bit fortunate, but the only issue for me was their second goal which came from a corner.“We just did not deal with the first contact well enough .“It became an uphill battle after that. We had the sending-off but even after that, we still created plenty of chances and got the penalty.”Fell revealed that the fixture against Gainsborough was on the list of “must-win” if City are to have any chance of forcing their way into the top five.“It was a game which had identified as a win,” said Fell.“We were expecting to go there and get the win so it now means that out of our final 10 games, we need to win seven of them to have any chance.“It means one of the games against South Shields or Buxton, who are above us in the table, will now go down as one we must win.“In our planning, we looked at those games against South Shields, Buxton or Morpeth as games which would be a bonus if we got something from.“We are not going to give anything up but we know that it is going to be a tall order. It’s going to be a massive mountain for us to climb.”