THE next three games are crucial for Worcester City.

We travel to Havant and Waterlooville on Saturday for our first Blue Square South match in a fortnight and then host current leaders Team Bath at St George’s Lane on Monday.

Those two games are followed by a trip to Maidenhead United the following weekend — three big matches for the club in seven days.

If we are still there or thereabouts at the top end of the table after these three games we will be very happy.

I don’t really give myself a points target for the games ahead, we will take the first game on Saturday and see what we can get out of it and go from there.

On the bus home from Hav-ant we can assess injuries and start thinking about who is going to be playing on Mon-day. It’s tough playing two games in 48 hours but it will be the same for Team Bath.

You can guarantee it’s not going to be the same 11 players for both games.

Everybody has got a part to play with three games in eight days coming up and a busy schedule after that.

The players are confident and I would back them all to do well if called on. If we had more money in the budget some might not be here but a lot of them would.

Most haven’t come for the money. Some were offered £50 or £100 more to play in a lower league. They are not on great wages at all as an average, despite what some people might think and what they give to the club is fantastic.

Some players, such as Avun Jephcott and Troy Wood, had a chance to impress against Redditch on Monday and some did better than others.

Passing-wise we did OK but they closed us down well. When you play teams that want to be aggressive and leave their foot in, you have got to stand up and be counted and we were lacking a bit in the first-half. The second-half was a massive improvement all round.

I think the confidence is there and a lot of credit has to go to the lads who have been playing week in, week out.

The back-four have been solid and goalkeeper Danny McDonnell has been a different class.

In midfield, whichever four play will be up there with the best in the league.

The AFC Wimbledon match was great, it was almost like we had nothing to lose and the atmosphere was fantastic. We started like a house on fire, kept it going but had to hold on at the end.

Team Bath and Maidenhead are going to be in the mix come the end of the season and if we are there with them, it will be a great effort from all the players.

On the injury front, Shabir Khan will be touch and go for Saturday but we are desperate for him to be fit because he’s had a great season.