“IT’S as big as Wembley for me, if not bigger.”

Less than a year removed from Warrington Rylands’ greatest day, Dave McNabb’s words put into context the magnitude of his side’s trip to Workington this afternoon.

The destination of the Northern Premier League West Division title will look a lot clearer come 5pm after table-topping Blues have faced their nearest challengers.

And as they chase the third promotion of his time in charge of the club, Rylands boss McNabb believes the importance of this afternoon’s game eclipses that of their memorable FA Vase Final victory over Binfield at Wembley Stadium last May.

“Obviously, you can’t ever replicate the feeling of being at Wembley and winning a trophy and I get that, but this is the bread and butter and we’re trying to climb the leagues,” he said.

“At Wembley, the reward is the trophy and you’ll remember the day forever, but the rewards of winning games like Saturday and the ones that are left are earned over 40-odd games of a season in terms of winning promotion.

“They are the rewards I personally want more – I want us to push and challenge ourselves against fantastic teams and managers, like we’ve done this year.

“You want to keep pushing that envelope.

“I don’t think it’s the decider as such as there’s still a lot that can happen after it, but it’s obviously a major point of the season.

“It’s a massively important game for both sides. We want to go there, give a good account of ourselves and try and win the game.”

Blues head to Borough Park with a slender, one-point lead over their hosts and at the moment, their destiny is very much in their own hands.

They also arrive in great form having won each of their past eight games to storm into a title picture that has been dominated for the most part by Workington and Marine, who now sit seven points adrift of the lead in third.

> Click here for a closer look at the form and run-ins for both sides

In order to keep control of their destiny, however, McNabb was clear as to what his side must do.

“I think we have to win the game. I don’t think we should be relying on other people,” he said.

“They’ve got a very tough game against Marine next weekend, but we’ve got two tough games as well against 1874 and Bootle.

“People will look on paper and say we should be beating those teams, but its never that simple.

“It’s not a title decider, but I think it’s a game we must win if we’ve got any aspirations.”

One thing working against Rylands this afternoon will be the home crowd, with a large attendance expected at Borough Park.

Only Marine can better Workington’s average home gate of 677 this season, and it has helped Chris Willcock’s side to a record of 12 wins and just two defeats from 17 fixtures on home soil.

It is also a classic “unstoppable force meets immovable object” occasion as Rylands’ division-leading attack that has plundered 91 goals so far this season faces up to a Reds defence that has conceded just 23 times this season – far fewer than any of their rivals.

“I can’t see it being a high-scoring game,” McNabb said.

“I think it will probably be a goal either way and hopefully, it’s in our favour.

“Their home form’s excellent and we’ve been much better at home than we have been away all season.

“Having said that, we have gone to Marine and taken points off them.

“It’s going to be a hostile atmosphere but a lot of the players have dealt with that kind of thing before and dealt with it pretty well.

“We’ve just got to try and discount that advantage they’ve got and play our own game.

“We’re in fantastic form, we’ve got a very strong squad of players who are used to dealing with high-pressure games, so let’s go and give it our best.”