‘We’ve got to hold our nerve’

Newark Town find themselves out of the play-off places with four games remaining after losing a two-goal lead against Heanor. The Blues made a flying start against their promotion rivals on Saturday, with Ryan Rushen and Louis Czerwak on target inside the opening 15 minutes. But the in-form visitors pulled a goal back midway through the half, levelled just before the break and scored twice in two minutes before the hour mark to inflict a 4-2 defeat on shellshocked Newark.

Luke Parsons’ side have dropped from fifth to seventh in United Counties League Premier Division North. But the race for the play-offs could hardly be tighter with Heanor, AFC Mansfield and Newark locked on 62 points and separated by goal difference. Boston Town, in fourth, have 65 points.



“It’s set up to be a quality last four games,” said Newark manager Parsons, who takes his side to relegation battlers Deeping Rangers this Saturday (3pm). “Who’s going to hold their nerve? We’ll just have to see. “We’ve got two at home, two away, so it’s our penultimate away game on Saturday.

“Every game there’s something to play for. Deeping are scrapping for their lives, Boston and AFC are scrapping for play-offs and Newark & Sherwood are scrapping to make sure we don’t make it! They’re four tough games. “We know Deeping won’t be easy.

We drew 2-2 earlier in the season when our keeper clattered their player in the last minute, which they scored a penalty from. “For a team near the bottom they’ve got a very good home record and we know it’s going to be a battle. “We’ve got to dust ourselves down from last week and try and put in a better performance and get the three points.

” Parsons felt Newark may have been feeling the effects of their midweek League Cup semi-final exit after unravelling against Heanor. The Blues were edged 1-0 at Lincoln United on Tuesday night and looked heavy-legged as Heanor stormed back from their early deficit. “When you’re 2-0 up you expect to at least take a point but to make the mistakes we did was massively disappointing,” said Parsons.

“But I don’t want to take anything away from Heanor. “They’re a good side and the only side we’ve lost to twice. “They got back in the game, we took our foot off the gas a little bit and they rallied and capitalised on every mistake we made.

They thoroughly deserved the win. “It was weird because we went 2-0 up and had a chance to go 3-0 up, then we had a let-off and they started waltzing through us. It was like Tuesday night had taken its toll.

“You could see there were a lot of heavy legs, Heanor looked a lot fresher, even though they’ve probably played more games than us, and their second goal before half-time killed us. I was so frustrated at half-time. “It’s not often I lose my head in the changing room but it was such a poor goal to concede.

“We knew their keeper had a big kick, he’s had the ball in his hands for 12 seconds and we still found ourselves two-on-two. “Our defenders didn’t drop, our midfielders didn’t drop and the keeper should be doing better with the shot. “He’s parried it to the centre-forward and he’s got an easy tap-in.

“We started all right in the second half and then an absolute clanger has gifted them the third and you could see the lads’ heads drop. “The whole team were in shock and, credit to Heanor, they pounced on us straight away and scored again.” In squad news, Andrew Tsolakis has decided to leave Newark.

“We wish him well in his future endeavours,” said Parsons..