ANDY Crowther hopes his players can draw on the disappointment of last season’s play-off final defeat with Droitwich Spa one win away from promotion to Step Five again this campaign.
The Saltmen claimed an impressive 3-1 win away at Allscott Heath in the semi-finals last weekend to reach the play-off final for the second time in as many seasons.
And after Spa suffered an agonising last-minute 2-1 defeat at Ashby Ivanhoe in last season’s play-off final, Crowther hopes his side can use the experience to their advantage against OJM Black Country this weekend.
Crowther said: “It’s one of those games, it’s a final, it’s a one-off game, we’ve kept the core of the squad from last season.
“No matter what happens it’s been another successful season getting to the play-off final again, hopefully the players will draw on the disappointment of losing the final last season and we can go that one step further.
“We’ve got a bit more depth this season, we should be full of confidence, we put in a very professional performance and scored at critical times in the semi-final, we defended superbly as a complete unit.
“OJM are a very good team, they’ve got the best defensive record in the league, it’s going to be a tough game, we’ve got to keep it tight at the back, all season we’ve let ourselves down with the goals we’ve conceded.
“We’ve leaked a lot of goals so we’ve got to make sure we’re on our game defensively, we’re both going to create chances so it’s going to be a very interesting game.”
Spa drew 3-3 at OJM in early January before slipping to a 3-1 home defeat in the return fixture last month while just two points separated the teams in the Midland Football League Division One table.
Droitwich travel to OJM on Saturday, May 4 with kick-off at 3pm at Triplex Stadium.
