SWINDON Supermarine manager Dave Webb reckons that his players owe it to themselves to not treat Saturday’s clash with Didcot Town as a dead rubber.

Winchester City’s 1-1 draw with Slimbridge on Wednesday night means that Marine are guaranteed at least a fourth-placed finish in the Southern League Division One South & West – Webb’s men would need to overturn a goal difference of 23 this weekend to snatch third from Taunton Town – and they look set to travel to either Taunton or Banbury United in next Tuesday’s play-off semi-final.

Before the play-offs, Marine have to contend with the visit of Didcot and although the Webb’s Wood Stadium boss’ team selection will be catered towards maximising fitness across his squad ahead of next Tuesday, he is keen for his troops not to take their foot of the gas.

Marine have won three on the bounce and Webb wants to see his troops maintain their high standards in their final league assignment of the season.

“It’s great that we could get 89 points and we can’t finish any lower than fourth, because we need every advantage possible for the play-offs – we could end up playing the final at home,” he said.

“The way we’re looking at it is that we’ve got three games to go and we want to get three wins in a row.

“Of course, we want to have everybody available for the play-offs, so we’ll closely assess the two or three that are carrying knocks and maybe we’ll change things in one or two areas.

“But we’ve got into good habits and we need to make sure that we keep those going.

“The 5-1 win against Totton (last Saturday) was a superb result because they’re not a bad side.”

Webb added: “Next week will be all about who performs on the day.

“We’ve drawn twice with Taunton this season and we’ve beaten Banbury once and drawn with them.

“We’re going to be away from home, so you can understand why we wouldn’t be the favourites but our first goal is to get further than we have done before in the play-offs and that means getting to the final.

“It’s superb for us to be in with a chance of promotion.”