Underbank boss Richard Knight has labelled this afternoon’s home clash against National Conference League Second Division leaders Millom as one of the most important in his seven-year reign.

A dip in form has plunged Rangers’ play-off hopes into doubt, and that’s far from ideal ahead of such a big game against the Cumbrians at The Cross.

But Knight is determined to see his side rise to the occasion and guarantee they don’t miss out on a place in the play-offs for the first time since the head coach took over in 2008.

“Today’s game is a pretty big one for us,” said Knight, who has drafted former Giants full-back and Underbank assistant coach Paul Reilly into the side.

“That’s not just because of the hammering we took at Millom earlier in the year. It’s also because we’re now only four games away from the end of the season and know if we don’t pick our performances up quickly we will miss the play-offs for the first time in my seven years with the club.

“We haven’t been playing as a team over the last six weeks, and that’s a massive disappointment for me.

“We built this side on the back of us being a unit, which is something that hasn’t been the case in recent weeks, so we need to get back to that. We’ve changed our team accordingly and I think we’ll see the results this afternoon.

“Millom are a good team and that’s why they are sat at the top.

“We will need to play some really good footy to compete with them, but I have the confidence in this 17 to give it a real good go.

“Our senior players, like Kris Harrop, Alex Chatterton and Dave Valentine have been awesome all year and hopefully they can carry that on today with the improved performance of the rest of the team.”