Tommy Warrilow says pressure comes with the territory when playing for Ashford.

The Nuts & Bolts are in a major scrap to make the Isthmian South East play-offs.

They conceded a 94th-minute equaliser in a 2-2 draw at East Grinstead last weekend.

On the plus side, they moved to within two points of fifth-placed Cray Valley, who lost to Whitehawk, but know they should be level with the Millers.

Seventh-placed Ashford have five games to go, starting with Lancing at Homelands on Saturday (2pm).

Victory would set them up nicely for two games in four days over the Easter weekend, after which they should have a good idea of where they are in the race for a top-five finish.

“It’s going to come down to who holds their nerve the most,” said boss Warrilow.

“I’m entitled to get angry with a performance, and I was fuming at full-time on Saturday because we should have seen the game out, but I’m not panicking.

“It’s the old saying about game management.

“What we need to do now is get our heads right for another big game on Saturday.

“They’re all big games at this stage of the season - all pressure games.

“We’ve only lost one in 10, so it’s not a bad run at all but there’s only five games to go now and that’s the difference.

“There’s no point building one game up without the others because they’re all important.

“When people sign for Ashford, they’re joining a club where the expectation levels are high.

“That comes with the territory of being an Ashford player. Whenever we lose it’s an upset and when we win we’re supposed to win anyway.

“That’s a massive compliment to how things have gone here over the last few years but at the same time it would be nice if we got acknowledgement for winning games.

“We’re still very much in the play-off race. Saturday becomes bigger after dropping two points last weekend but, you never know, that could still end up being a crucial point at East Grinstead.

“It’s so tight that every game is stripped down and every point dropped is seen as the end of the world but we can’t think like that.

“Teams at the top are playing each other, so points have got to be dropped somewhere.

“We’ve just got to keep scrapping out wins and try and get ourselves in that top five.

“We take the criticism and the plaudits and get on with it.

“As a club we need to stick together and if we can get three points on Saturday it sets us up for Easter.

“It won’t be easy against Lancing. They beat us at their place and they still need points to make sure they don’t get sucked into the relegation play-offs.”

Danny Parish and a Gary Lockyer penalty gave Ashford a 2-1 half-time lead at East Grinstead. But the Nuts & Bolts struggled playing against the slope in the second half and conceded deep into added time.

Warrilow, who has midfielder Cameron Brodie available this weekend following a three-match ban, said: “It feels like a loss but there’s no point being negative.

“Three points would have been more helpful but East Grinstead deserved something out of it on the second half. We started sitting too deep. We couldn’t get up the hill although we did have a couple of chances.

“When you don’t take them you might regret it and we did.

“The second half was nowhere near acceptable and I wasn’t that happy at half-time, either.

“Defending the hill in the second half, I was expecting an onslaught but I still expected us to get up the pitch more than we did.”