Leamington boss Paul Holleran - This is a nice kind of pressure

​A 2-0 win at home to South Shields on Saturday was followed by a 1-0 loss at Alfreton Town on Tuesday night, leaving the Brakes 14th in the league table and almost mathematically safe from relegation.

And speaking after Saturday’s win, Holleran said it was a rare luxury for his side to be in that position at this level and at this stage of the season.

He told BBC CWR: “It’s probably the first time we have been at this stage of the season in this league and we’re not really looking over our shoulder. It’s lovely. The pressure I’m putting on the players is to keep pushing on. This is a nice kind of pressure.

"We want to try and get to 60 points and it’s important that we don’t stand still. The message after the last week or two is that we want to keep improving on what we’re doing. We want to keep driving on, picking up more points, going toe to toe with these big clubs.”

Speaking about Saturday’s win, Holleran felt it was a deserved three points, saying: “I thought the first half performance was full of hard running, aggression.

"We got the ball in good areas and backed it up with second and third men. The first half was as good as it’s been for a bit, against another good full time outfit. Their results have been a bit up and down this year but when they’re good they’re good, but I thought it was about us first half.

"Second half they came after us a bit and probably the game was a little bit more open. They’ve had a couple of chances, we’ve had a couple of chances. I thought we could have managed that a little bit better, but I’m probably nit picking.

"On the back of the schedule we’ve been on, to come here today, on a difficult surface; the conditions were warm, so to put in a performance that was full of energy and hard running and that much graft and discipline was really pleasing.”

Leamington host play-off hopefuls King’s Lynn on Saturday.