Paul Collicutt says he will only be able to celebrate his birthday on Saturday if Evesham United have beaten his former club Bishop’s Cleeve.
Tuesday’s 3-0 win at Kidlington moved Evesham back into the Southern League Division One West play-off places with four matches left.
The first of those is at home to the club Collicutt led into the Southern League in 2006.
Cleeve are seven points adrift at the bottom and a 3-0 home defeat by Larkhall Athletic left them needing a remarkable turnaround to avoid dropping back to the Hellenic League.
“I take no satisfaction at all from the situation Cleeve find themselves in,” Collicutt said.
“I still have a lot of friends there and get on well with the manager (Steve Cleal).
“But I am doing a job for Evesham United and we want to finish in the top six, which means I’ll only be able to enjoy my birthday if we win the game.”
Linden Dovey is expected to be back in contention after sitting out the midweek win with a groin injury.
Fellow defender Will Wellon may be missing due to work commitments, but Collicutt will otherwise name the same squad.
He has been using a flat back four in recent weeks, breaking with his long tradition of using three at the back.
“I have tinkered with it, but for me it’s less about formations and more about the way the players go about things,” he said.
“We’ve had a tough run of games and come out of it with some good results and we should have got something against Taunton (1-0 defeat last Saturday) and they’ve won the league.
“There are a lot of teams still in contention for the play-offs and I fully expect it to go to the final day, which makes for an exciting finish.”
Source: Gloucestershire Echo
