The Green Lions host Horsham YM on Saturday afternoon at Victoria Park with a place in the promotion play-off final at stake, with the clubs having finished third and fourth respectively in the table with just a single point separating them. Crucially, though, that point gives GFC home advantage in the tie.
‘A home semi-final is what we’ve been craving and aiming for – we’ve done that bit now and ticked that box,’ said manager Tony Vance.
‘We obviously want to win this game, but the positive already is that we’ve achieved what we wanted to achieve in terms of getting a home semi-final, so now we have got the opportunity to take another step, but we have got to go and earn it.
‘It’s going to come down to fine margins. Play-offs will always be tight, they should be by definition.’
While Horsham finished below GFC in the table, they have beaten them twice this season with a 3-2 success at Victoria Park followed by a 4-0 win on home soil, but Vance believes his Green Lions were below-par in those contests.
‘Horsham have beaten us twice and we have struggled to score against them, but we have home advantage so we have to look at that as our opportunity to try and compete against them,’ he said.
‘In the two previous games, they have won too comfortably and we have not really shown up. They have played at a good level to beat us, but we have been sub-standard.
‘This time, if the crowd can lift us and we do find our game, it should be a good contest.'
Vance hopes to have, more or less, a full squad to choose from,though he admitted there were ‘one or two fitness issues’ to contend with.
‘I’m sure Horsham are in the same position where everybody is quite tired now because it has been a long season, we’ve just got to find a little bit from the group. The fact that it is a play-off semi-final in front of, hopefully, a big crowd should help us get that bit extra.
‘Horsham have a physicality and an aggressive personality to their side, they have a lot of pace up front and they do not concede many goals – they are a unit together.
‘We try to play in a slightly different way, but we will have to be ready for the challenge they will bring.
‘We have been talking about what we need to do, it’s down to whether we can put that into reality.’
Saturday's game kicks off at 1.30pm at Victoria Park and it is understood the tie will go straight to penalties if it is a draw at the end of regulation time.
