WARRINGTON Town’s increasingly desperate situation can only be changed from within, manager Paul Carden says.
And while any survival push from this point may seem like a case of “too little, too late,” he insists they are not yet ready to give up their fight to stay in the National League North.
A run of two home games in four days yielded just one point when, ideally, six were needed – Town were beaten 2-0 by Scarborough Athletic on Tuesday night after Andy White’s 97th-minute leveller rescued a point against Chorley at the weekend.
As a result, Carden’s men are now nine points from safety with 12 games of their season remaining, the first of which sees them visit Alfreton Town on Saturday.
And the Town boss says that long and increasingly difficult road to survival can only be achieved through togetherness.
“It's not been an easy season for a lot of them but if they want to get out of it, they’ve got to muster it from within,” he said.
“Me and the staff have got to find a way of driving that home but when you’re a footballer, everything’s from your own drive.
“You hear pundits saying you shouldn’t need extra motivation and that is true, but there are times where we need to pick each other up.
“If we’re leaving each other to our own devices, it doesn’t happen that way.
“It’s not easy standing in interviews talking about ‘what ifs’ all the team, and that’s what I’ve done since early on.
“It’s not something I’ve wanted to do or have been used to doing, but we’ve got to stand up and be counted in this final run of games we’ve got left.
“There’s still a lot of points to play for, and I hate saying that because we haven’t taken anywhere near enough.
“We find ourselves where we are for a reason, but somehow we have to find a way of getting a spark and turning one win into two and three.
“People will say we haven’t done that all season but whilst there’s still there’s some of the season left, we’ll make a fist of it and try and make the most of it.
“It’s a big number of point and stranger things happen, but we can’t be dependent on other teams.
“Before we end up reliant on other results to try and get us somewhere, we have to try and take ownership of where we’re at and try and force our way out of it.
“It’s got to be the only way forward.”
