King's Lynn captain Sam McMahon handed the Southern League, Premier Division promotion hopefuls a fitness boost yesterday by declaring himself fit for the crunch Easter period.

King's Lynn captain Sam McMahon handed the Southern League, Premier Division promotion hopefuls a fitness boost yesterday by declaring himself fit for the crunch Easter period.

McMahon missed the Merthyr horror show on Saturday after failing to shake off a knee injury picked up against Mangotsfield the previous week.

The former Leicester trainee is set to return for make-or-break games with Banbury and Grantham that hold the key to Lynn's hopes of finishing second and securing home playoff advantage.

"We know we let ourselves down against Merthyr," he admitted. "The test is to come back strong because it's a long time since we played that poorly. Every side has a bad performance in them at some stage.

"When we beat Chippenham people were talking about titles and what a great team we were. Tommy has been there and done it in the game and made sure no one got carried away. By the same token losing a game or two doesn't make us a poor side.

"The most important thing now is not to be searching for form going into the playoffs. If we get a settled side back again and everyone firing for the remaining league games we can still finish second.

"We were awful at Banbury in the cup and Higgsy got injured early on in the league game which probably upset our rhythm, but I see no reason we can't beat them at our place. Grantham will be big and physical, that's something we've faced many times this season, and we've managed to pick up good results."

McMahon insists Lynn have nothing to fear from any of their potential playoff rivals.

"At the start of the season we felt it was possible to win the league," he said. "I still think most people would've snapped your hand off at this stage to be offered second and home advantage in the playoffs.

"We've already proved this year we can match the playoff sides. We blew Chippenham away at our place. At Bath we were the better side until they scrambled a late equaliser and we were 2-0 up and cruising at Bedford before giving it away."

The 30-year-old would love the chance to help Lynn consolidate at Nationwide-level next season should Taylor's side plot a path to promotion.

"This has been my most enjoyable season for three or four years," he said. "Captaining the side has been good and with Shaun (Carey) coming in I've had a bit more freedom to get forward. I'd set myself a goals target of getting into double figures but I'm quite happy with five because it's never easy when the side has to chop and change.

"Hopefully the majority of the lads will stay as well. I know Tommy is looking to get that nucleus sorted. It's a fairly small squad compared with other teams so he'll probably look to strengthen. In that respect we've been quite lucky with injuries - only Higgsy was out for any real length of time.

"The potential is there to get a couple of thousand at league games. It's up to the players now to go out and get ourselves in that position by doing the business on the pitch."