MARTIN Poste admits a promotion play-off place may be out of reach for Northwich but insists that won’t dampen his players’ mood for the run-in.

Blacks celebrated a 27-20 win at Waterloo last time out, their fourth straight victory in North One West, and climbed to third in the table as a reward.

However an impressive success for Blackburn at leaders Carlisle the same afternoon saw them inch further away from the Moss Farm outfit.

Their grip on second spot feels tighter with a 14-point gap between the teams after they beat Manchester on Saturday.

Northwich play a game in hand when De La Salle arrive in town this weekend.

“Perhaps we’ve left it too late to catch them,” said Poste.

“I don’t know, maybe Blackburn feel there’s a glimmer for them to win the title now and that makes them even less likely to slip up.

“That won’t affect us; the atmosphere is great in the dressing room and we’re in a good place.”

Northwich trailed 10-0 against the Blundellsands side before a hat-trick of tries from Joel Barber, each of them converted by Nick Baldwin, took them clear of relegation-threatened hosts.

The visitors resisted a late rally too from their opponents, who scored two tries in quick succession, to record another notable success on their travels this season.

Poste added: “That’s probably another way in which you can measure our progress.

“They scored from the first visit into our half but being 10-0 down and playing in front of a partisan home crowd didn’t seem to faze us.

“There was an authority about us, particularly at half-back, that enabled us to take control.”

De La Salle visit Moss Farm on Saturday, kick-off 3pm.