Shifnal must be 'ruthless' in play-off final

After narrowly missing out on the title, the Shropshire side are favourites on Saturday (3pm) against Northwich. They have already drawn against them twice in the league this season and Patterson felt that his side ‘were the better team both times’.

Town defeated Brocton in the semi-final 3-2 to continue their push for promotion thanks to goals from Kyle Byrne, Sam Fitzgerald and Jack Rowley, adding to a run of nine wins from 10 games since they last drew with Northwich.

Patterson said: “I think it's just going to be who wants it the most on the day, if I'm honest. Who turns up, who's not going to let the occasion get to them.

“I think whoever turns up on the day and wants it that little bit more, I think they might be winners.

“It's massive for us all really, going up into the next step. And hopefully a few more fans and stuff start coming through the gate and, you know, the club is going in the right direction of where we wanted to go.

“The three games that we have played against them, I personally feel like we were the better team both times. I feel like we should have come away with three points, both times we played them, home and away.

“Felt we had the game pretty under control for long periods and we just couldn't take chances, and we weren't ruthless enough.

“And that's something that I’ve been drilling into the boys lately. They've got to be ruthless, and I think if they are ruthless, you know, they hit them where it hurts, I think we could be in for a successful day.”

Shifnal finished the season four points behind champions Lichfield City, however, their record of 22 clean sheets this season was the best in the division, as they conceded only 27 total league-goals.

Northwich defeated third-placed Atherstone Town in their semi-final after finishing the season with the lowest goalscoring tally of the play-off teams – they scored 63, five worse than ninth-placed OJM Black Country.

Midland League Division One side AFC Bridgnorth have a chance at earning some silverware for the club as they take on Cradley Town in the JW Hunt Cup semi-final on May 6 (7.30pm).

Manager Jack Griffiths is expecting his players to step up a level after a disappointing 0-0 performance against Gornal Athletic saw off their successful league campaign.

He said: “We’ve got to buck our ideas up going into the semi-final against Cradley, because play anything like that against Cradley and we'll get turned over and we've got no chance of getting to Molineux.

“And I know the lads will switch on now. we've got a bit of an end of season do this weekend, and then we'll go again at training.

“We're training twice next week, and then we've got a friendly on Saturday just to keep the lads legs ticking over before the semifinal.”

Despite missing out on the play-off places, Midland Premier outfit Whitchurch Alport face North West Counties South side Allscott Heath in the TJ Vickers Premier Cup final on May 7 (7.45pm).