Bootle boss Brian Richardson has called their clash with Widnes as a must-win.
The Bucks overcame a stern Newcastle Town test last time out as Jack McGowan and Connor Millington fired in two late goals to secure an important three points away from home.
Results last weekend around Bootle handed them a lifeline in their efforts to sneak into the playoffs as Clitheroe held Runcorn Linnets.
As a result, Richardson says it’s a case of ‘needing’ to beat Widnes rather than ‘wanting’ to. It will be the third meeting of the season between the two with Dave Dempsey’s side winning the first meeting 3-0 before Bootle scraped through their FA Trophy encounter on penalties.
He recalled to Off The Park: “Difficult conditions, end of season pitches, a lot of wind, no conducive to great football but at this stage of the season I think it’s more about results.
“Newcastle were well organised, tough, they had a couple of good chances. We acquitted ourselves well and came out with the right result. It’s not an easy place to go.
“There’s a good feeling from a manager when you don’t concede. When you get clean sheets there’s a lot more satisfaction because you know everyone’s done their job.
“They had a couple of decent chances but we didn’t give them loads of chances and dealt with what chances they had.
“We probably didn’t have a lot of chances but the two goals that we had, certainly the second from Connor Millington was a five-star goal, the first one was a set-piece – which we don’t get enough of that’s for sure and that lifted us till the end and came away with a good result.
“They’re all rivals, every team we cross the line and play are our rivals because they’re capable of stopping whatever run we’re on. They’ve been a difficult team to play against, I don’t see winning on penalties as winning, we drew in the FA Trophy and got beat so it’s about time we beat Widnes.
“There’s no better time than being on this run, they’re on a good run, we need to beat them it’s not the case of wanting to, we need to if we’re going to keep our feint hopes of going up alive.”
