Warrington Town boss on Scarborough Athletic play-off final

For the second time in as many completed seasons, Warrington Town stand 90 minutes away from a place in the National League North.

In order to take that fabled next step, however, they will have to beat the odds for the second time in a week.

They travel to Scarborough Athletic to contest the Northern Premier League Premier Division play-off final tomorrow having lost both games against the Seadogs during the regular season.

Both of Town's meetings with play-off final opponents Scarborough Athletic this season have resulted in 2-0 defeats. Picture by Karl Vallantine

The same was true of South Shields, however, before Yellows memorably won Tuesday night’s dramatic semi-final tie between the two via a penalty shoot-out.

Now, all eyes turn to the North Yorkshire coast to see if Town can make it third time lucky in terms of play-off campaigns.

“We’ve got to have belief,” manager Mark Beesley said following Tuesday's game.

“We’ve got to believe in ourselves and Scarborough will feel the same.

“They’re a good team who have beaten us twice this season and will fancy their chances on their own patch.

“It’s up to us to recover first and foremost.

“We’ve had 120 minutes plus the journey home. Lads will be in work too so it will take a couple of days to recover.

“We’ll get them in at some point and do a little bit of work to get ourselves ready for Scarborough.”

While Scarborough won their semi-final tie in normal time thanks to a 2-1 win over Matlock Town, Yellows and South Shields slugged it out for 120 minutes on Tyneside.

With the score locked at 1-1, goalkeeper Dan Atherton proved to be the hero as he saved two penalties to secure a 6-5 shoot-out victory for Town.

Town players rush to celebrate with goalkeeper Dan Atherton after his save sealed a penalty shoot-out win at South Shields on Tuesday. Picture by Kev Wilson

However, thoughts quickly turned to the task at hand.

“They brought themselves down quite quickly in the dressing room after the game,” Beesley said.

“We celebrated the win as we should have done, but we got it done quite quickly.

“There were a few words spoken as we know the task in front of us.

“We’re only halfway there. You get nothing for just winning a semi-final.”

Town’s only fresh injury concern ahead of their trip to the Flamingo Land Stadium is a concerning one.

Winger Jack Mackreth will miss the game and is set for a long spell on the sidelines after suffering a knee injury seconds after coming off the bench against South Shields.

Having slid into the advertising hoardings, Mackreth twisted his knee and needed assistance to leave the ground.

However, his manager says it only serves to increase the team’s motivation to finish the job.

“The only sour point is Jack’s injury, which looks like it’s a really bad one,” Beesley said.

“We want to try and go that one step further for him.”