Notts County Head Coach Luke Williams believes his side will have ultimately “failed” if they don’t achieve promotion to League 2.
County face Boreham Wood on Sunday in the semi-final of the National League play-offs, after the visitors narrowly defeated Barnet in the first play-off game.
The winner of the semi-final will go on to face either Chesterfield or Bromley at Wembley Stadium on May 13, with Football League status on the cards for the victors.
Whilst his side have broken the 100 points margin and boast a record-breaking striker in their frontline, Williams feels it accounts for nothing if they fail to achieve the targets they have set.
He says: “If we look at the table at the end of the season and it doesn’t show that we’ve been promoted, it’ll be a failure for us.
“There’s no point looking at the past and focusing on how many points we sit on, we need to focus on our next opponents and try to overcome them.
“You might as well scrap the points off now and put us both on 0.”
Williams knows from experience that anything can happen in a play-off situation, and knows his side need to be at their best against their opponents.
“Every manager in this division will tell you that they’ve had a tight game against Boreham Wood, they’re coached well and are disciplined at the back so we won’t have many chances.
“Whilst they’ve got the best defensive record in the league, we’ve got the second best, so we’re not easy to play against ourselves.
“The difference between us both isn’t big enough that it’s a given, and in order to win this game we need to take good chances and put in a big defensive display.”
There was nothing to separate these sides in the league campaign, with a 1-1 draw at Meadow Lane back in January and a 2-2 stalemate at Meadow Park in August.
The Spion Kop End at Meadow Lane: CC BY-SA 2.0 – © John Sutton geograph.org.uk/photo/5078859 –
