Wolves Women have it all to play for in the race for promotion.
Dan McNamara is not giving up on the title but is preparing his Wolves Women side to make history if they are forced into a promotion play-off.
Wolves sit four points behind league leaders Burnley in the National League Northern Premier Division, but have a game in hand, meaning they are relying on the Lancashire side slipping up in their final two fixtures.
McNamara’s side have already guaranteed at least second place, which would secure them a play-off against second in the Southern Premier Division, for a place in the WSL2.
The head coach is preparing his side for that crucial play-off, but is not yet giving up on a late twist in the title race, following his side’s 1-0 win over West Brom at Molineux.
He said: ”In this title race, we've got three games to go now. We're still in it, we're still pushing.
“Halifax took Burnley to 70 minutes. The hardest thing to do is get over the line and if they do it, I'll say congratulations, and if they don't, we'll be ready and waiting.”
He added: “We go about our business.
“I'm really proud of the girls for securing that second spot so early.
“We only play 22 league games, so when we've secured that second spot with five to go, you don't realise what you're up against in this league now.
“You cannot lose a game and football shouldn't be like that, but it is.
“Burnley are leading the way and they absolutely should be. They deserve to after beating us.
“But we've just got to keep going and these kind of occasions are massive because they'll prepare us for a play-off.
“A one-off game in a stadium, it gives you a different feel, with 2,500 people in here.
“Every action that we do over the next month is now in preparation for that play-off and if we don't have to play it, fantastic.
“If we do have to play it, we want to be as prepared as we can be.”
The play-off is a one-off for this season due to the WSL expanding, giving Wolves another opportunity to realise their dream of promotion to the WSL2 for the first time.
After coming so close to promotion in previous seasons - losing a play-off to Southampton in 2022 before the promotion rule changes, as well as missing out on goal difference and on the final day - this season they have it in their own hands.
McNamara is full of praise for his part-time side as they continue to defy the odds.
“It's so hard, people don't understand what we're up against,” he said when asked about the side’s resilience.
“I know people are probably bored of me talking about it, but we shouldn't be competing with Burnley. We shouldn't be competing with more than three times our budget.
“But we do because of the characters and the culture and the environment we've got here at the club.
“I see people saying we've come second again, but that is huge success for what we're up against - Forest and Burnley and Newcastle the year before. We don't spend a quarter of what they do.
”People need to understand it a little bit more before they make comments.
“I'm just really proud of the girls. How do we keep doing it again? We're the best at coming through adversity.
”That comes down to the staff, the culture, the players, the environment that we surround ourselves with. People want to be here, they want to be part of it, they care.
“We’ll keep going because we've got to get this club into the Super League.
“We've come too far now to give up on it, hopefully it'll be this year.
”We've got an opportunity and if it's not, then we'll come through more adversity and we'll go again.”
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