Brackley boss Johnson expects National League North title race to “go to the wire”

The Saints missed a chance to take on leaders King’s Lynn Town on Tuesday night after the big clash at St James Park was postponed less than an hour before kick-off due to a frozen pitch.

Boss Johnson was left frustrated by that but is now turning his attention to a game at struggling Farsley Celtic on Saturday.

Brackley are just a point behind King’s Lynn Town and AFC Fylde, who have emerged from the pack in the last few weeks, although they have played more games than the top two.

And Johnson knows his team will have to win some big games in the run-in as they chase automatic promotion.

“I think it’s going to go to the wire,” he said.

“It’s vital that we beat the sides in and around us. They will be massive games when we play them.

“The games are going to come thick and fast, more so for the likes of King’s Lynn and Fylde and it’s never easy going Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday for a lengthy period of time.

“We will be amongst it but we have just got to focus on the game ahead and Farsley is that game.

“Hopefully it will be on and Farsley are scrapping for their lives so we aren’t going there overconfident.

“We have to go there and do what we do and hopefully come away with the points at the end of it.”

Johnson, meanwhile, offered some insight into Tuesday’s late postponement, which left players and fans from both sides disappointed.

“First and foremost, we were absolutely gutted the game was off,” Johnson said.

“There was a pitch inspection at 2pm and it was fine. The referee came at 6pm and I walked around with him and he was happy.

“But there was a real cold snap for 40 minutes and he went back out and there were bits of it that were hard.

“For me, I thought it was playable but his concerns were the temperature dropping even more and the safety of his assistants because the sides of the pitches were quite hard.

“We were desperate to play but the weather is the weather, we can’t do much about it.”