A pivotal three weeks in Corby's survival bid

And six of them will be played during the next three weeks, making March the pivotal month in the Steelmen’s bid for survival.

The crucial run of fixtures starts with a clash against rock-bottom Skelmersdale United at Steel Park tomorrow (Saturday) and that is followed by a trip to Rushall Olympic next Tuesday night.

But later on in the month, the Steelmen host fellow strugglers Sutton Coldfield Town and then, after a trip to Barwell on March 18, they have back-to-back games against Marine, who are one of the teams who have been dragged into the dogfight.

The situation became a lot clearer in midweek.

Corby are four points adrift of safety with Marine now the team to aim at after they were beaten 3-2 at Sutton Coldfield on Tuesday night while Frickley Athletic moved seven points clear of the drop zone with a 1-0 home win over Matlock Town.

It’s the time of year where fans will be keeping an eye on other results as well as their own clubs.

But Corby boss Gary Mills, whose team were beaten 4-2 at runaway leaders Blyth Spartans last weekend, insists his team will focus on their own matches.

And while those clashes against the sides around them really catch the eye, the Steelmen manager feels his players have shown they are capable of getting results against anyone.

“One thing this group of players have proved is that they can win games against teams at the top end of the table as well as against those around us or just above us,” said Mills.

“So yes, we do have some big matches coming up in March and there will be some games that you would describe as ‘six-pointers’.

“But I fully expect us to go to any ground in this division and give a good account of ourselves.

“We certainly won’t just be targeting certain games, we will go into all of them believing we can take points from them.

“We want to take care of our own business.

“If we can get the amount of wins that we think will be enough then that will be great.

“But we just have to take care of ourselves and win football matches.”

Mills, meanwhile, reported no fresh injuries following last Saturday’s loss at Blyth.

Miles Smith was the only absentee with a hamstring injury and the Corby boss added: “Not much has changed from the injury point of view.

“We will check on Miles Smith in training this week and see how he is.

“The boys who played last weekend came through it for us and we will patch them up again.”