Salisbury manager Darrell Clarke claims all the pressure will be on Dover Athletic in Sunday’s Blue Square Bet South play-off final.
Clarke’s side clinched their place in the promotion showdown courtesy of a 2-1 aggregate win over Chelmsford City in the semi-finals.
This, after the Wiltshire outfit finished second in the regular season, six points ahead of Chris Kinnear’s Whites in third place.
Clarke believes the Kent club will be feeling the squeeze due to the high expectation of promotion at the Crabble, and is hoping for a “fairytale” ending to a “dream” season for City as they bid to return to the top flight of non-league football after a two-year absence.
He told BBC Wiltshire: “For the last four of five years they’ve been trying to get into the top tier of non-league. A club of Dover’s size, they’ll be feeling the pressure.
“If anything, they’re under more pressure than ourselves because we were looking to build slowly after the demotion. We’ve got there a lot quicker than people would have thought.”
Clarke added: “I played in the team that would have finished sixth in the Blue Square Premier had we not had a 10-point deduction.
“To be sat here in a situation where we are one game off getting back there is a bit of a dream. Come Sunday, I hope we can add to that fairytale.”
Posted: Friday , May 10, 2013