Lincoln United climbed out of the relegation zone on Saturday afternoon after they secured a 4-2 win over fellow strugglers Consett United.
Scott Hellewell recognised the magnitude of that victory after the game when he said: “I don’t care how we won the game; we just needed to win it.”
However, the Lincoln United manager was also keen not to dwell on the victory and quickly looked ahead to the sides upcoming games.
He said: “It’s something to build on, we can’t get carried away with it because we’ve got three massive games coming up against teams below us.”
First up on that run is a trip to Newton Atcliffe next Saturday who currently occupy the final spot of the relegation zone sitting in 19th.
The Newtonians haven’t won in almost a month with their last victory coming away to Silsden AFC on October 11.
Since that 3-2 victory the side have failed to win in four attempts scoring just one goal in that time.
On the game Hellewell said: “We need to kick on now, we haven’t done anything just by winning one game of football, so we need to back that up next week.
“It’s a massive game against Newton Aycliffe, it’s a long journey up there so we’ll try and recover as best we can and we’ll look at things on Tuesday night that gives us the best possible chance.”
Following that trip, the Whites then face two home games against the recently relegated Blyth Spartans as well as Ashington AFC the following Saturday.
Both those sides currently sit inside the relegation zone, however it is Blyth who sit the lower of the two in 21st, having won just one of their last five league games.
That came in a 2-1 victory over Matlock Town who could have gone top that night had they not lost out on the long midweek away trip.
Spartans currently sit three points and three places below the Whites with Ashington AFC sitting a point and a place above them.
Ashington’s winless run however stretches back even further with the side going eight games without victory.
That victory came on September 27 when they found a 2-1 victory at home to Silsden which at the time was their third win in three games.
The next three games for the Whites could be ones that define the season for Hellewell’s side and possibly turn out to be the difference between relegation or another season at step four.
With play-off chasing North Ferriby coming up after that run, Hellewell certainly knows what nine points could mean to his side’s survival hopes.