HAVING run themselves to a standstill at St Mary’s on Tuesday, Winchester City must dig deep again to haul themselves over the line in the Southern One South & West play-off race.

Evesham’s midweek defeat at Bishop’s Cleeve means victory over Larkhall Athletic at the Denplan City Ground on Saturday will guarantee Paul Masters' men a top-five finish.

There were some tired legs in the City camp following the exertions of Tuesday’s Hampshire FA Senior Cup final defeat to National League South outfit Havant & Waterlooville.

Ultimately they did not have enough gas in the tank - or options on the bench - to cling onto a 30th-minute lead before losing a penalty shootout, but Masters could not have been prouder of his energy-sapped side.

“I’ve said all season that this group have given me absolutely everything,” he said.

“Fitness and lack of depth to the squad showed on Tuesday, but some of these lads have played between 50 and 60 games this season and you don’t get that too often these days.

“We know what we need, but working within a budget can be difficult at times. It’s not like years ago when there was loads of money flying around.

"No disrespect to our boys, but you only needed to look at who Havant brought off the bench to see what we were up against.

“The lads we’ve got have been fantastic and they’re not the highest-paid in the world, believe me.”

Although Winchester were running on empty for the last 30 minutes at St Mary’s, the first hour was a source of great encouragement to Masters with the play-offs in mind.

After what he described as a few “iffy” performances, City are getting back to their best.

“We’ve played well the last three games,” he said. “We put in a good performance at Cinderford, we were below par in the first-half at Bishops Cleeve last week but came good in the second half, and we did well at St Mary’s. We’re slowly getting our mojo back.

“There’s been a bit of pressure on our lads to get over the line, but the Evesham result in midweek helped and the sooner we can get the job done now, the better.

“I still fancy us to beat anyone on our day and we wouldn’t fear anyone in the play-offs.”

City’s scorer at St Mary’s, 36-year-old comeback striker Andy Forbes, has netted twice in as many games.

“Forbesy’s quality,” said Masters. “He’s still got that will and determination to win games and be as good as he can be. He's great in the dressing room too and good for the young lads to learn from.”

Winchester skipper Warren Bentley agreed: “We needed a pivot up top that we can play into and keep defenders busy. Forbesy’s given us what we were lacking after losing Zach (Glasspool) to Sholing.”

Two of Winchester's cup final absentees Leigh Mills and Craig Feeney return on Saturday, but Matt Benham (knee) is still struggling.