Diss Town boss Garth Good believes home crowd can act as ‘12th man’ in promotion run-in ahead of Whitton United visiting Brewers Green Lane

With four of their remaining six matches in their play-off run-in at Brewers Green Lane, Diss Town manager Garth Good believes the home crowd can act as his fifth-placed side’s ‘12th man’.

He is hoping the national Non-League Day tomorrow, with top-level professional clubs not in action due to the international break, can help draw in a bumper gate for the visit of 15th-placed Whitton United in the Thurlow Nunn League First Division North (3pm).

“I always think no matter what club you are, getting good home support makes a massive difference, especially at this time of year,” he said.

“It’s one of those games where it should be a decent spectacle in the sense that both teams will be bringing a certain intensity to the game, fighting for their relative positions.

“And if we can get some local fans down at Brewers Green Lane, I know that makes a difference to how the boys work and the intensity they bring in situations because that can help you sometimes, as a 12th man.”

He added: “I think in my little time, a year-and-a-half, we’ve seen improvement in our local support. That might be linked to us performing better, but I think there’s a better feel around the club than there was previously.

“So I think in that sense, we’re going in the right direction and these moments when they can get behind us do make a massive difference to us.”

The Tangerines, who have seen a six-point cushion they were sitting on in the last play-off spot reduced to four points, will be looking to get back to winning ways following a 1-1 draw at Pinchbeck United on Saturday.

Despite surrendering a first-half lead from Myron Abodunde’s header to a 77th-minute equaliser from Harry Cranfield, also a header, Good was happy to take a point with a depleted side out in Lincolnshire.

“If you would have said to me at the start of the game that Liam Jackson (achilles) was going to pull out Saturday morning, your goalkeeper’s going to pull out this morning (illness) and two of your centre-halves aren’t going to be fit to start along with our full-back Cal Bray, I probably would have taken the point, in all honesty.

“We played well on Saturday, I thought we limited them to very, very little. We had a lot of ball but probably weren’t very clinical ourselves.

“We did well to take the lead, I think then both sides had bits of possession but lacked a knockout punch, and then one little mistake has cost us two points on the day.”

Following training on Tuesday, Good confirmed he should have the five players missing through illness and injury on Saturday back in the squad, with only Alfie Sandon (unavailable) set to be missing.

Meanwhile, he praised assistant goalkeeping coach Bradley Moore for stepping into the breach on the day of the game last weekend, due to George Howes’ illness.

“He hasn’t played football in two or three years and he’s never played at this level,” said Good. “It was a situation where the under-23s also had a game.

“He comes to us to a lot of games and helps to warm us up. And this week he was able to step in and do us a very good job, in all honesty.”

Diss host Whitton having lost to them in the League Challenge Cup (2-1) and drawn the reverse fixture 0-0.