CARL Macauley believes Witton Albion remain in a race for the title but admits he was worried Rugby had ruined his side’s chances last weekend.

The Valley won 4-3 at Wincham Park in dramatic fashion, scoring a stoppage-time winner.

And if that wasn’t painful enough the hosts’ players found out in the dressing room afterwards that Shaw Lane, the Northern Premier League Division One South leaders, had also been beaten.

“The lads were even more upset after discovering that,” revealed Macauley.

“It was a massive concern for me, and I asked myself if it would play on their minds.”

He received a decisive answer on Tuesday, when Witton completed a double over Leek – themselves hoping to contest the promotion play-offs at the end of next month – in convincing fashion.

It means they head south for the return with Rugby on Saturday still nine points adrift of first place with two games in hand and, crucially, with another head-to-head against Shaw Lane on the fixture list.

Macauley said: “We’ve responded to each of our previous league defeats this season in the right way, by winning the next game.

“But I felt Leek might be different; they’re fighting hard to make the play-offs and had caused us problems the previous week.

“We deserved to beat them, and I was surprised they didn’t try anything different to get their own back on us.

“They played the same way, and that helped us out.

"We were really good in the first half though, and the movement of our front four - and their combination play - caused all manner of problems for them."

His side visit Rugby with a question mark against them when it comes to taking on teams at the bottom of the table.

Prior to last weekend, they have lost as well on visits to Carlton and Market Drayton.

They were also held by tenants Northwich Victoria, currently bottom of the table, on Boxing Day.

“We’re like Liverpool,” quipped Macauley.

“There does seem to be a pattern that we find a way to beat the teams at the top only to drop points against those lower down.

“I can’t put my finger on why.

“We certainly got what we deserved [against Rugby] last weekend, when we made mistakes defensively for each of their four goals.

“We’ve got to learn lessons from that.

“It didn’t help either that we started so slowly, although we put that right against Leek.

“We need to win, so can’t afford to begin the game as sluggishly as we did last time because look what happens.”