RICHARD BRADY has warned Leatherhead they need to go into the Ryman League Division One South play-offs as a team in form.
The Tanners boss knows automatic promotion is beyond his side but reckons a strong finish to the season will give them the best chance of winning what he regards as a promotion "lottery".
Leatherhead are on the edge of the play-off places and manager Brady wants his team to win the majority of their ten league games left, not just to secure their spot, but to give them momentum.
"We need to get into the play-offs with some form. We can't just fall into them, you need to have won your last three games," Brady explained.
"And if you can't win enough of your final games to get into the play-offs then you don't deserve to be there.
"The aim is just simply to go out there and win our remaining games. Leatherhead is a club that expects to win games and that is all you can do.
"I wouldn't want to go into the play-offs having lost the last three or four games, we have ten games left and I see no reason why we can't win those games."
Before Wednesday night's clash with Folkestone Invicta, the result of which was not known when the Advertiser went to press, Leatherhead sat fifth in Division One South, but Brady insists it is too early to think about who he would rather face in the play-offs. "That is for the fans to think about, not me," he insisted.
"For me, I think of it as a lottery. There is no guarantees, the only guarantee is that three teams will lose in the play-offs. Finishing second, third, fourth or fifth doesn't guarantee anything."
However, having won the "lottery" of the play-offs previously, earning promotion at the end of the 2010-11 campaign, Brady is confident no-one will want to face his experienced Tanners in the end of season showdown.
"I would fancy us in the play-offs. I don't think any of the others would want to play us," Brady added.
Leatherhead travel to Eastbourne Town on Saturday.
