FC Isle of Man still in fight for play-offs, says Jones

'The Ravens' welcome strugglers Colne to The Bowl tomorrow night

FC Isle of Man's Manager insists his team remains in the fight for the promotion play-offs ahead of his side's latest NWCFL Premier Division clash this weekend.

'The Ravens' are back at The Bowl on Saturday (22 February) to take on a Colne team currently battling for survival at the foot of the table.

Currently the Island side sits nine points off the top five with just ten games remaining this season.

Paul Jones says his team has to be ready to capitalise should opponents above them drop points:

A slight lift in results recently for the Manx side means they've only lost one of their last five outings, taking eight points from a possible 15 in that time.

However, the challenge of pulling back a nine-point deficit from their ninth-place standing to catch those in the play-off places could be made all the more difficult by the fact that West Didsbury & Chorlton in fifth and Padiham in sixth have on and two games in hand respectively on FC Isle of Man.

Meanwhile, the reverse fixture between the Island hosts and their Lancashire visitors this weekend came all the way back on 31 August, 2024 at the Haffners Stadium where the points were shared in a 1-1 draw.

In the only two other meetings between the sides last season, Colne emerged 2-0 winners at The Bowl on 22 December 2023 before FC Isle of Man got revenge with a 2-0 victory of their own on 12 April last year.

Elsewhere, Colne themselves - after a tough start to the campaign with just one win in their first 21 league matches - a slight upturn in recent months puts Andy Harrison's well in contention to beat the drop.

Whilst they sit rock-bottom in 24th place on 25 points, they only trail Squires Gate and Prestwich Heys in the two places above them on goal difference and ground out a 2-2 draw at Charnock Richard in midweek (18 February).

FC Isle of Man vs Colne takes place at The Bowl this Saturday, 22 February, kicking-off at 6pm.

Manx Radio will be providing full live match commentary on our DAB and AM1368 channels.