Chances of a play-off campaign may be drifting for Lowestoft Town but positivity is returning to Crown Meadow after a tough campaign.

Relegation from National League North was followed by the club losing its academy set-up but manager Ady Gallagher has managed to keep his squad in touch with the top five despite a small squad.

The Trawlerboys are nine points from the play-off places with six games to play and unbeaten in seven league games ahead of today's trip to Merstham in Surrey – and Gallagher is just pleased to see his team enjoying their football.

'I think we can go on a decent run until the end of the season and if nothing else then it puts us into a nice frame of mind knowing that we've got a very good side together and if we can just tweak it here and there then we can improve for next year,' he said.

'So for me it's about building momentum for the summer, if it takes us into the play-offs by some sort of freak situation then obviously we would take that and I would be competitive in the play-offs if we could get into that situation.

'But in reality I think that's not really in our hands, there's other teams ahead of us, so all we can do is try and maintain the run that we're on.'

Lowestoft have brought in 17-year-old keeper Nathan Bishop on loan from League One side Southend United as cover for Jake Jessup, after being without goalkeeper cover during last week's 2-2 home draw with Folkestone Invicta.

Merstham are 16th but have three games in hand on most teams in the bottom half and have won two of their last three games.

'Their performances have certainly been mixed,' Gallagher continued. 'They've had some fantastic wins mixed in with some disappointing results so we're expecting tough opposition, we've got to play them twice now in the run-in.

'Three points (against Met Police last weekend) puts them in a much healthier position down the bottom and they've got games in hand so they'll clearly be scrapping away for anything that they can get. From out point of view it's just important we hit the levels that we've set ourselves over the last few weeks.'