RYMAN ONE NORTH: Great Wakering Rovers manager Dan Trenkel is looking up the table and not down after his side surpassed the points total he believes will keep them in the Ryman One North.

Rovers beat Thamesmead Town on Saturday to move onto 48 points ahead of tonight’s game against second-from-bottom Cray Wanderers.

And Trenkel said he now felt his side were safe, having taken 10 points from the last 12 and going five unbeaten in the league.

Rovers are now 11 points off the drop with six games remaining.

“I would like to think our points tally means we are now safe even though I know mathematically that’s not the case,” he said. “We would need a bizarre set of results for the eight teams below us to overtake us!

“We aren’t even thinking about that and are trying desperately to try and claw back the ground to Waltham Abbey and Thamesmead and overtake them in the last six games.”

But Cray pose a tough challenge for Trenkel’s men. Having won the reverse fixture 2-0, Cray have gone on a run of their own and won three games in a row having previously failed to secure back-to-back wins so far this season to give themselves a chance of survival.

“Cray always had the potential to go on a winning run,” said Trenkel. “They have a manager who is very experienced at levels higher than this and the players they have signed in their overhaul show you just how vast their resources are. They will now believe they can get out of the drop zone.

“They have a huge amount of experience in their side, people like Chris Piper and Nick Humphrey so we know that they will be tactically sound.

“But we have such a strong bond at present and we’ll be in a very confident mood going there.”

Jay Nash celebrated his 20th goal of the season against Thamesmead – having previously turned down the chance to treble his wages with Ryman Premier League outfit Witham Town.

And Trenkel was full of praise for his hard-working striker.

“Nashy has had a great season and he still has six games to try and achieve even more.

“For any striker 20 goals in a season represents a successful season. He’s worked very hard this year and he’s had his tough times while trying to add different attributes to his game.

“He’s by no means reached his ceiling yet though. He is learning more each game about himself and I’m happy that he can now rightly class himself as a proven 20-goal-a-season Ryman League player. Those are hard to find at any club.”