McIntosh hopes to build on successive Buxton wins

A 3-1 win at home to Stamford on Saturday was followed by a 2-1 success against Marine on Tuesday night, pushing the Bucks up to 11th spot in the Evo-Stik Premier Division table.

Two long trips now follow to Whitby Town on Saturday and then Colwyn Bay next Tuesday night, both opponents currently sat in the relegation zone.

And McIntosh is keen to see his side continue their run.

He said: “As with the last two games, we have to be very wary of sides at the bottom as there is so much at stake in terms of the damage relegation can do to clubs so they’ll be really fighting hard.

“The journeys take it out of you sometimes too but I have a set of players with a really good attitude and they don’t get fazed by things like that, so hopefully we can get results from both games because an positive result away from home in this league is always a good thing.”

Saturday’s win over Stamford came against a side that were on a good run of form as they aim to escape the clutches of the bottom four, Brad Barraclough scoring twice to add to Chris Salt’s first-half opener.

McIntosh said: “You could see why Stamford had picked up in recent weeks as they were at it early on, but I felt we played really well.

“Brad Barraclough was excellent with his two goals and Chris Salt also weighed in with a good goal too, so it was a very good result for us as Graham Drury has made Stamford into a very well-organised unit.”

Tuesday night’s trip to Merseyside then saw Spencer Harris net a late winner after Niall Doran’s first-half opener had been cancelled out by Chris Sharp.

McIntosh added: “Our preparation suffered a bit as we had six or seven players turn up after 7pm, mainly due to not being able to get out of work any earlier which is sometimes a problem you have at this level.

“So our warm-up was cut very short but in fairness we started well and then kept going right to the end, including getting the late winner.

“Marine might have felt they deserved a draw as they had a few good chances they didn’t take but I’m delighted with the three points.”

With 52 points on the board, Buxton look almost certain to have avoided any potential relegation battle.

McIntosh added: “I don’t think any team has ever been relegated with 52 points so I think it’s safe to say we’re not going down.

“Mathematically you could say the play-offs are still in reach but I think you have to be realistic and say that even a great run would see us struggle to get into that group.

“We suffered a lot when we had the spell of injuries and that halted any hopes we really had of getting into the play-offs, but although we’ve got games to come against sides both who are struggling and who are in the play-off area, we have a very tight schedule and it will be a tough run in.

“I’m really keen for us to finish strongly. We want to build a competitive squad for next season to push on from what we’ve done this year and I’m intent on keeping our best players here.

“I’ve been delighted with the squad’s attitude. We have a relatively small squad and we’ve lost a few to other clubs but I can’t fault my players who I’m very lucky to have.”