Rangers boss set for the final month

Stafford Rangers manager Matt Elliott has told his players the club's Blue Square North future is in their hands as they enter the final month of the season.

The next seven games will decide Rangers' fate as they battle relegation from the second tier of non-league football and a potentially crucial weekend kicks off April.

Rangers welcome mid-table Harrogate to Marston Road to tomorrow occupying the last relegation spot on goals scored, while nearest rivals Hyde go to the team one place above them in the table, Brian Little's Gainsborough Trinity.

Defeat for either side at the Northolme could plunge them into the drop zone coupled with a Rangers win or, in Hyde's case, even a draw. Elliott's men also have a game in hand on both teams, away at Worcester on Monday night.

But all pales into insignificance if Rangers fail to pick up points in the next three days, which precede two away games, two home games and then another two away games to finish the season.

However, Elliott is confident this will be the month where his growing side save their skins.

He said: "We are in the mix, it looks as if any one of us three are going to get that dreaded second relegation spot and we will be doing our utmost to ensure it's not us.

"It's in our hands, we have the game in hand and, out of the three teams, on paper I would take our run-in, which is encouraging.

"They also have to play each other tomorrow, so obviously points are going to be lost by one team or the other, and it's up to us to make sure that we capitalise on that."

Rangers will be without captain Craig McAughtrie, Craig Reid and Alex Forde tomorrow - and most likely Monday's game.

McAughtrie has missed the last four games with a hip injury, while Reid and Forde have hamstring strains.

And Elliott watched his side turn in one of their worst first-half performances of the season in a 3-2 defeat at Harrogate in January, in which McAughtrie and Forde both played.

But, even without the duo, the manager has vowed his side will put on a better show.

He said: "This is a key fixture for us and I am always optimistic that, whoever we play against, we are capable of a victory.

"Harrogate, I am sure, will have something to say about that, so we will give it our best shot and see where that takes us.

"They are a more than capable side who beat us up there not so long ago, but I like to think that we can improve on that."