DORCHESTER Town will have to overcome heavy legs and opponents Hayes & Yeading United tomorrow (3pm).
The Magpies have played a combined 121 minutes with 10 men across 48 hours of Easter holiday football, but still managed to amass four points after beating Tiverton and drawing with Winchester.
Dorchester, who are eight games unbeaten, have the added task of facing a managerless Hayes side in danger of relegation.
Mark Molesley left United last week to join Weymouth, with Peter Stansford and Delroy Preddie named caretaker managers.
READ MORE: Dorchester Town 2-1 Tiverton Town - report
However, the Middlesex club find themselves bang in danger, sitting 20th of the 22 teams with only six games remaining.
For Dorchester boss Tom Killick, though, his focus is on maintaining the Magpies’ league-best momentum in the form table.
He told Echosport: “To be playing on the Saturday with 10 men for pretty much a half on a really heavy pitch and then Monday the whole game more or less with 10 men it was almost the worst set of circumstances you could have.
“The players were out on their feet. They were really struggling, as you would expect.
“We were hanging on by our fingertips but the players showed exceptional resilience and fortitude to get themselves in a winning position.
“If you’re not on a good run and you lose a man in the fifth minute, when confidence is fragile it’s much more difficult to get a positive outcome because players’ mindset might be that there’s a slight element of conceding that it’s not your day.
“When you are on a good run and you’ve got that belief in yourselves as a group, you’re more able to overcome adversity. Their reaction to it was very good.”
Killick has so far resisted the temptation to include new signing Harry Redknapp Jr in the Magpies’ squad.
The Bournemouth loanee is joined by the likes of Luke Roberts, Harvey Hughes and Lewis Toms on the periphery, with Killick opting not to upset the balance of his in-form 16 so far.
He added: “We’ve obviously been doing well and you tend to keep a settled squad.
“Since he’s signed, we’ve been doing quite well in terms of results. Therefore, I’m not going to by design make changes to the personnel.
“Depending on what happens with availability, he will come into the squad. We didn’t have Luke, Lewis and Harvey has been playing for Portchester.
“If we do lose people from the squad then those are the people that come into consideration.”
Jack Dickson has seven days’ grace after his red card against Tiverton. Will Spetch is set to appeal his own red card at Winchester.
Corby Moore, who needed eight stitches in a deep head wound from the same game, is set to continue playing after featuring against Tiverton.
Killick added: “That was a monumental effort on his part. He’s such an unbelievable character that he was prepared to play because he knows the significance of these games.
“He was immense. That was a stand-out performance and a statement of character. The other person who was exceptional was Ed James.
“He’s always been good but he’s growing every game. I felt that was probably his best game he’s had in a difficult situation.”
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