Damon Ming, the Dandy Town Hornets talisman, admits that the league leaders are braced for a nail-biting finish to the Premier Division season with just three points separating the top four.

Town suffered a potentially damaging defeat away to Hamilton Parish last weekend, giving renewed hope to title rivals Somerset Trojans, Devonshire Cougars and North Village, although Ming insists that the Hornets’ fate remains in their own hands.

Only goal difference separates Town and Trojans, who also had an unforeseen result when they could only draw with Wolves last Friday. However, Ming is confident that his team-mates have the extra know-how to cope with the end-of-season pressure.

“It’s going to be a close end to the season, that’s for sure,” Ming said.

“It’s going to be a nailbiter, but we’re just trying to focus on ironing out a few things and pressing on from our disappointing loss [to Parish] last weekend.”

Hornets will look to return to winning ways when they take on Wolves at St John’s Field this weekend.

They will then seek revenge against Parish in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup next weekend, before a crunch encounter against Somerset on February 16. Both games will be held at St John’s Field.

“We have a tough month coming up and we just need to take every game as it comes,” Ming added. “We’ve just got to do what we’ve got to do and worry about the rest later.

“When it comes to the crunch games, we have the quality to win them and claim the title.

“We’ve got to come out with the right mentality, work as a unit and, if things work in our favour, I can’t see anyone beating us.

“This is the business end of the season and we’ve just got to take care of things.”

Despite failing to take advantage of the Trojans’ slip-up against Wolves, with Hornets losing against Parish two days later, Ming emphasised that spirits remain high in his team’s camp.

“It was a disappointing result [against Parish] and the players were frustrated after the game,” he said.

“Games like that happen and some days everything works in your favour and some days it doesn’t.

“We didn’t start like our usual selves — very slow — and we didn’t get into our usual flow.

“Parish had their game plan. It was the same they used against us at St John’s Field earlier in the season, when we drew 1-1.

“Credit to them because they stuck to it again and this time it worked for them.”