ROB Scott looked ahead to tomorrow's crunch clash with Cambridge United and told Grimsby Town's fans "we need your help more than ever."
After a week which has seen the Mariners suffer back-to-back league defeats, their Conference title hopes hang in the balance.
Town may have a game or two in hand on most of their rivals, but a seven-point gap has opened up between them and top spot.
And Scott needs no reminding that the Us' visit to Blundell Park – followed by Tuesday's trip to struggling Nuneaton – could go a long way to deciding their title chances.
It's therefore time for the management, players and fans to pull together like never before, according to the co-manager.
"We're going to need everybody's help, who is connected with Grimsby Town, to get us over the line," Scott said.
"That goes back to everybody – me and Paul (Hurst), the staff and everybody at the club, the fans especially.
"We've told the players to stick together because you learn a lot about people when things aren't going so well.
"When times are good and you're winning, everything is rosy in the garden and it's easy to keep plodding along.
"But when things go against you a little bit – do you stick together? Do you keep believing in what you can do? Do you believe in your ability and keep that same level of effort and desire up?
"Everyone needs to keep believing and get behind us."
Saturday's defeat to Kidderminster Harriers and Tuesday's reverse at Mansfield have taken Town's hopes of automatic promotion out of their hands.
But, with almost a quarter of the campaign to play, Scott believes his squad can haul themselves back to the summit.
"We've lost two games in a week which isn't great, but the opposition are flying," he added.
"We haven't been battered over those two games or been particularly poor – every team loses games of football and it's about reacting and getting back on track.
"We've still got a good chance. We'd have taken this position at the start of the season. I think pretty much everybody would have grasped that.
"It's going to be tight, very tight. We said we wanted to get in the play-offs and if the top spot was there for the taking we would keep pushing for that as long as possible.
"We certainly haven't given up on that yet, no chance."
The Mariners boss continued: "On the whole, everyone has been fairly realistic. You always get people who say 'that's it, you've blown your chances.'
"But they're the sort of people who feed on negativity and we're not about to do that. I don't like all the doom and gloom. It doesn't help anybody.
"We're not doing too badly. We've got a trip to Wembley and we're fifth in the league with games in hand.
"We're relying on the fans to get behind us tomorrow to give the players that lift again – in return the fans will get total commitment."
