Sutton United have been charged with fielding an ineligible player but boss Paul Doswell says his side are relaxed despite their Vanarama National League South promotion push taking a turn for the worse.
The charge concerns Jamie Slabber’s loan from Hemel Hempstead during Sutton’s crucial match against fellow promotion chasers Maidstone United on Tuesday where it is believed all the relevant forms where not sent to all appropriate authorities.
Despite facing a possible points deduction, Doswell insists the team are very calm about the situation and are focussing on the games ahead.
He said: “Our view obviously in the camp is that we now need to win all remaining four games on the trot anyway and what will be, will be on the charge.
“The players are very together on that, to be honest it hasn’t made any difference because we generally think we will be okay and all we can do is win football matches.”
Doswell said he is not focussing on the politics of it and wants to instead place attention on the upcoming games against Margate and Bishop’s Stortford.
He said: “If we don’t beat Margate on Saturday it’s irrelevant anyway. If we don’t beat Bishop’s Stortford on Monday it’s irrelevant.
“Unless you keep winning your games it becomes a non-issue.
“The only time it does become an issue will be against Oxford City in the last game of the season so our view is we will take the next four games, we’ll try and win them and see where that ends up.”
Despite what is no doubt a massive curveball thrown at them in their quest for promotion to the Vanarama National League next season, Doswell has confidence in his team to achieve promotion, even if that means through the play-offs.
He said: “The confidence I’ve got in this team and the way we are going about it if we didn’t win the league it’s not the end of the world, we’ll have to make sure we win the play-offs.
“But the one thing we do want to do is to try and get promoted.
“We’ve gone over half a season now unbeaten which is an incredible achievement and we just got to keep going for another four or five games.
“The minimum now is we are in the play-offs and without sounding arrogant, I think, we are the best side in the play-offs and it’s about players performing on particular days.”
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