Lee Allinson is hoping that St Albans City’s 2-1 win over Chelmsford City on Saturday can be the catalyst to a push up the National League South.
Goals from Kieran Monlouis and Layne Eadie meant City completed the double over one of their play-off rivals.
And although they remain just outside the play-offs in eighth, they are only six points off first.
And Allinson wants the Saints to repeat their performance in the remainder of the campaign.
He said: “We need to turn the games against sides in and around us into wins. We’ve matched the likes of Havant and Chelmsford twice now and we need to do that more often if we’re going to make a push for the play-offs.
“It’s going to be an up and down season but this win leaves us just outside the play-offs, right where we want to be, ready to make a push towards the end of the year.”
The victory was the perfect response to the New Years Day defeat to rivals Hemel Hempstead Town and City’s assistant manager was pleased for the two scorers.
“Kieran should be scoring more goals for me,” he said. “If you see him in training he’s scoring all the time so he needs to put his training performances into games.
“I think you’ve seen why we need him in the side and if we can get him into double figures for the season, there’s no reason why he cannot get back into the pro game eventually.
“With Zane Banton and Shaun Lucien missing we felt that Layne deserved his opportunity.
“He’s been sat on the bench and hasn’t moaned. He’s got on with it, trained really hard and we told him on Thursday to prepare to play and I think he put in a great performance.
“The determination to get there was outstanding and he finished it off beautifully.”
The game also saw the debut of Harry Bradbury, on loan from Watford until the end of the season, and Allinson revealed it was thanks to dad, and former Portsmouth striker, Lee.
“He rang us on Thursday and said he was available and would we be interested? We remembered him from pre-season so we took the gamble.
“He’s only 19 but I thought he was outstanding. His work-rate and desire was excellent, he chased everything down, he’s a big presence up front and he was unlucky not to score at the end.”
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