Shrewsbury Town manager Paul Simpson has admitted his team have no margin for error when relegation threatened Grimsby head to the Prostar Stadium tomorrow.

Town are in seventh place in League Two but a five-point gap has now opened between them and the teams above them while Chesterfield, in particular, are keeping the pressure on the teams immediately inside the play-offs.

And Simpson has admitted nothing less than maximum points will suffice against the Mariners.

“We have put ourselves in a position where Saturday is a must win, it’s as simple as that,” he said.

“There is a bit of a gap opened between ourselves and the teams above which is disappointing but we can’t do anything about that now. We just have to get the next six games done properly.

“I think we have to win all six to give ourselves a chance (of automatic promotion). Apart from that, I think they are too far ahead of us now.

“But it’s there for us. The first thing we have to make sure is that we cement a place in the play-offs because that’s not guaranteed at the moment.

“If we can do that, then we will look at the next situation as well.”

Simpson admitted he is wary of the threat posed by Grimsby, who are just three points above the drop zone, but insists results and not performance are the only thing that matters.

“Every game now is a big dogfight – it’s a case of getting results,” he added.

“We want to try and play the football we played at Wycombe last week and be a bit more ruthless at the attacking end.

“The must thing is we get three points.

“Grimsby have got players that can win games, the likes of (Barry) Conlon and (Jean-Louis) Akrpo, even (Adam) Proudlock who isn’t playing at the moment.

“We are on a good run of form but we are not getting the reward that our play maybe deserves.

“We have had too many draws out of the last run of games. We still take a lot of positives out of it but we have to be better than we are at the moment results wise.”

Kevin McIntyre, Mike Jackson and Glyn Garner remain the only absentees tomorrow.

By JAMES GARRISON