MIDDLEWICH Town must win their remaining matches to keep alive their hopes of being promoted to the Cheshire League’s top-flight.

That’s the verdict of Witches co-manager Ross Speight, who believes his side are playing well enough to do exactly that.

“Anything less and we’re at the mercy of others,” he told the Guardian.

“We’ve been playing well for a while, and haven’t just churned out results – the boys have produced a series of dominant performances that have kept us in the running.

“Our challenge now is to stay focused and that form can get us to where we want to.”

Town conclude the campaign by hosting Halebank on Saturday, kick-off 3pm.

They then visit Windle Labour on Wednesday, by which time all of their rivals will have completed their fixtures.

Speight said: “Whether that’s an advantage or not depends on how the other games pan out, I guess.

“We can only concentrate on what’s in our control, although of course we’ll be keeping an eye on what’s happening elsewhere.”

“It’s so close; every game has an impact on the table.”

Daten clinched the title on Monday following a draw with Lostock Gralam, leaving five rivals below them to fight it out for second spot.

Middlewich will sit sixth when the first whistle blows at Seddon Street this weekend.

They won 6-4 at Halebank earlier this month, a game they led 5-1 at the interval.

Speight added: “They won the league cup last week, and we expect a tough game.

“We were 5-0 up inside half-an-hour at their place, and didn’t give them a sniff.

“However they came back at us.”

The Widnes-based side, who won the JA Walton Challenge Cup earlier this month, have endured a troubled week.

On Thursday they were charged by the Cheshire League for failing to fulfil a fixture after claiming they did not have enough players available for an encounter with Lostock Gralam - a rival of Middlewich for a promotion position.

That followed a 9-1 hammering at home to Pilkington, another club with designs on reaching the Premier Division, 48 hours earlier.