Michael Duff believes the stage is set for Cheltenham Town to “get the job done” when the play host to Harrogate Town on Saturday.
Cheltenham have already gained their first promotion to League One since 2009 but can seal the league title with victory over Harrogate.
The Robins can still win the title even if they lose depending on whether Cambridge United fail to defeat rock bottom Grimsby Town in their final fixture.
Duff revealed that his side will be celebrating whether they win the title or not but said they’ll only have “themselves to blame” if they fall at the final hurdle.
“We were disappointed with the performance [against Newport] but what we didn’t know was the emotion that the previous two games had taken out of the players,” Duff said.
He added: “We were poor, particularly in the first half. It’s hard to constantly get to those levels in terms of physicality and mentality and we were off it. But we’ve almost earned that with the run we’ve been on in the last two months.
“If we’re as poor on Saturday then we’ve only got ourselves to blame. We’ve had a whole week to prepare for one game so we’ll be expecting a better performance. We’re playing on a good position, against a good opposition and it’s there for us to hopefully get the job done.”
Cheltenham won 1-0 in the reverse fixture at Harrogate in February courtesy of Will Boyle’s header.
Nevertheless, Harrogate, who won the FA Vase with victory over Concord Rangers on Monday, defeated fellow title contenders Cambridge United 5-4 last time out.
And Duff is under no elusion that Harrogate will pose a serious threat when they travel to Gloucestershire this weekend.
“They’ve had a very good season,” Duff said. “Credit goes to Simon [Weaver] and his staff. You look at the number of players, who were in non-league with them, that have carried them through.
“Although they’ve added good players in certain areas but a lot of that squad have stayed together. People will try to overlook Harrogate’s win [in the FA Trophy].
“It’s nonsense, they’ve won at Wembley and no one will take that away from them!”
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Boyle [knee] and Clements [hamstring] remained sidelined but Duff has no fresh injury issues.
