Salford City are now League Two’s top scorers, with their haul of 60 from 38 games, but that’s just two ahead of United who, until last weekend, topped the pile with their 58 strikes.
And manager Paul Simpson is more than aware that return to finding the back of the net with regularity will be key to where the last eight games will take the team.
“The run we’re on at the moment is certainly something you’ve got to deal with,” he said. “It’s something you must keep striving to make better. We have scored 58, unfortunately we’ve had three now where we haven’t scored.
“We’ve had three recently where it was the same. We have to make sure we get back to scoring, as we did then. We’ve got to have the belief that we can create, the belief that we can get bodies into the box to score, and if we do that the goals will start coming. Hopefully it’ll be this weekend.”
And there is most certainly a heap of quality in the forward areas to choose from as he looks to rediscover that particular knack.
“We have got good forwards but it’s unfortunate that they just aren’t firing at this moment, it’s as simple as that,” he insisted. “I’m not going to try and flower it up, I’m not going to protect anybody.
“All of them haven’t done the job that we’ve wanted them to do over the last few weeks. The challenge is, who is going to be the forward player who is going to jump out win us games.
“Who is going to be the midfield player, wing back, whoever it might be, who will it be who will stand up and scream that they’re going to be one of the ones who is going to go and win games for us. The sooner we get a group of players who are going to do that the better it will be for us all.
“I keep reminding people though that we’re where we are because of the good things all of these players have done for us so far.
“And I didn’t think we would be here, in this position, but I hoped we would be. I’ll be honest with you, I plan things one month at a time because I know how fickle football can be. I wasn’t going to ruin my diary by putting it in pen and doing the whole season.
“I do it a month at a time, I do the schedule for the players a month at a time, so they know what’s coming, so I didn’t know that this is what it was going to be. All I hoped was that with 10 games to go we were in a good position.
“To be really honest, a good position for me would have been 42 points and looking at mid-table and safety. We’ve given ourselves a huge lift, a great opportunity and, for me, it’s one of those where when you have an opportunity in football you have to do everything you can to hang onto it.
“They’re just so few and far between. I’ve been in football since 1982, and I’m not very good with stats but I think I’ve had five promotions. That’s actually good, but if you’re talking about five promotions across that period, it’s one every eight years.
“That’s why we need to make sure we grab hold of this opportunity and try to make the most of it. The last time I was here is how long it’s been since I’ve had a promotion, because I didn’t go up with Bristol, we were already up with Newcastle, we missed out with Derby, I lost in a play-off final with Shrewsbury, we couldn’t win for toffee at Stockport, so there was no chance of success there.
“Look, we want to achieve something. I think we’ve done really well so far, but we have to finish it off. It’s not about 38 games, it’s about 46. Or, if you haven’t managed it in 46, you get an extra three and you’re seeing if you can make it a right good day out in London.”