Survival and not play-offs still the aim for AFC Sudbury ahead of hosting Hitchin Town, boss Marc Abbott says

Despite being just three points off a play-off place at three games short of the half-way stage, Marc Abbott says his AFC Sudbury side’s only focus must continue to be reaching a 50-point calculated survival mark.

The Yellows spent last season – their first since promotion to the Pitching In Southern League Premier Central – fighting to remain in the division until the final day with the last relegation spot eventually swallowing up Hitchin Town, who finished one point worse off.

But it is the Hertfordshire-based Canaries that are visiting The MEL Group Stadium again on Saturday (3pm) in AFC’s last home fixture before Christmas. That is because they went on to have their relegation overturned by the FA following Coalville Town’s resignation, which opened up a space in the Step 3 league.

While Hitchin remain in the bottom four (third bottom 20th), Abbott’s side, reinforced by five signings with Josh Allen having left for rivals St Ives Town, find themselves in a vastly different situation heading to the turn of the year in ninth place. They are just three points off the final play-off spot, while the gap to the final relegation place is double that.

And with 26 points bagged from 18 matches (1.44 avg), Abbott was asked if their strong start has left them with an eye on a play-off push, to which he replied: “No, I think our aim is to get to 50 points as quick as we can. I think 50 points will keep us up this year.

“I think last season the 40 points just kept us up (Hitchin ended with 39).

“This season, the league’s much tighter. Most teams can sort of beat most teams within the league and hence why it’s so tight.

“But no, for us, I think full attention is to get to that 50-point mark as quickly as we can.”

Storm Darragh left the Harborough Town pitch unplayable last weekend, meaning Abbott ended up looking at the positives of not playing for two weeks heading into the visit of Hitchin.

“We were disappointed not to play but it did enable us to have that much-needed rest ahead of the busy festive period, so we should be in a strong position come Saturday with some niggles that have cleared up,” he said.

It means striker Joe Neal, on the bench for the 3-1 defeat at Barwell last time out, is now fit to start while Liam Pearce (ankle) is set to return and the break is also said to have helped get Callum Page in a better place having recently come back from a similar issue.

Sudbury go into Saturday’s game as one of only two sides, along with leaders Kettering Town still unbeaten at home this season.

And having now negotiated their way through nine matches, with five wins and four draws, Abbott and his squad are looking to stretch it as far as they can into 2025, should they avoid defeat this weekend and when Bishop’s Stortford arrive for a Boxing Day clash (1pm).

“We’re 15 (league) games unbeaten at home since the back end of last year so we’ve got great form at home and we’ve giving the supporters good value,” said Abbott.

He added: “With the fixtures against Hitchin and Bishop Stortford, they’re two different fixtures, but I think the one with Hitchin we’re approaching in a real positive mindset, but with that, we won’t underestimate them.

“They’ll obviously bring a challenge to us, but, again, we have got that sort of in-house sort of arrogance now with us that, again, no matter who we play at home, we can beat them.”