Play-offs were a ‘minimum’ target
... and Hawks need a point in final game to reach them
Jake McCarthy admitted Hawks will have taken the difficult route to achieving a minimum season requirement if they are to secure a National League South playoff place.
But the former AFC Bour nemouth and Weymouth midfielder believes such a barnstorming finish to the campaign in order to achieve the goal of a top seven finish will stand them in good stead should they be part of the play-offs.
Hawks have produced a fine late-season run which has seen them lose just once in their past 14 matches - and that at champions Maidstone - to leave them on the cusp of clinching the division's final play-off place.
Paul Doswell's seventhplaced side head into a shootout clash with Chippenham - in eighth - knowing a win or draw in the crunch clash on Saturday at Westleigh Park will see them finish in the top seven. Defeat would see the Bluebirds enter the sixth tier play-offs for the first time.
Should Hawks make it into the play-offs it would be quite the achievement given the fact they went on a run of nine league matches without victory between December and February.
But McCarthy, 26, says there will be no great celebration if a top seven finish is achieved.
‘It's nice from a whole club point of view, staff and players, that we felt we've managed to get ourselves back into a position where we felt we should have been this season,’ said McCarthy.
‘The play-offs were our minimum aim, if not going for the title - obviously now that's gone - our minimum expectation at the start of the season when we all signed and came together as players was play-offs.
‘Hopefully we can achieve that Saturday, that's the plan.
‘Hopefully the result goes our way and we can look forward to the play-offs but, first and foremost, we've got to prepare right and get ready for Saturday.’
McCarthy says Hawks’ management and players would have ‘snapped your hand off’ if they were told they'd require a draw or win at home in their final game to secure a play-off place, given how things had dropped off after the Christmas period.
And he believes it's strange how things have worked out with the two clubs in with a chance of claiming the remaining play-off spot facing off at Westleigh Park on the final day.
McCarthy added: ‘We said in the changing rooms after the game on Monday (0-0 draw against Hemel Hempstead), we all said and agreed, if you'd offer us one game to win or draw to get in the playoffs at Christmas time we'd have snapped your hand off. ‘Over Christmas we had a bad spell of Covid, injuries and just bad performance but the past three months we've been a different team, really, obviously the new signings have helped.
‘You couldn't really write it. The two teams fighting for the final play-off spot are going to be playing each other in the final game.’
McCarthy - a play-off winner with Weymouth at NL South level in 2019/20 has netted seven league goals this season.
A hat-trick gave Hawks a 3-2 win at Chelmsford last November, while a lastminute winner saw them pocket another crucial three points at Eastbourne the following month.