Marske manager Carl Jarrett has told his players that they must stay focussed over the rest of the season and try to forget about their title rivals.

Marske boosted their title chances considerably when they won their local derby 2-1 at Guisborough on Monday morning, but Jarrett knows that his team must win all three of their remaining games because not only are Guisborough still firmly in the race, but so are North Shields and Shildon. Marske are two points behind Guisborough with a game in hand, but North Shields and Shildon are six points behind Marske with three games in hand.

Jarrett takes his team to Consett’s Belle View this afternoon, and said; “I see Consett as the toughest of our last three games. We’ve played them three times already this season. We were leading them 1-0 earlier in the season when our floodlights went out and the game had to be abandoned, and in the re-arranged game we beat them 2-0.

“But in the Vase, they beat us 3-2 after extra time at their place. They’re the best footballing team we’ve played this season, so we have to be on our game.

“We have to take each game as it comes now, there’s no point in talking about ifs and buts.

“It was a very good performance by the lads on Monday, and I was well proud of them. Before the Easter weekend games against West and Guisborough, I would have been happy with four points, and instead we got six. The results have put us in a very good position.”

The race for the title has become one of the tightest for several years, and the destiny probably won’t be decided until the last week of the season.

“All we can do is put pressure on the teams around us to win their games. I know they’ve played fewer games than we have, but it can be hard to win games in hand at this stage of the season.

“If we can perform to our best in every game, then there’s no doubt that we’ll win games. If we underperform, then we’re quite capable of slipping up. It’s a mental thing. We have to forget about other teams and concentrate on ourselves.

“But no matter what happens, ourselves and Guisborough have had fantastic seasons. Certainly we’ve performed to way above what was expected of us. I’ll be like all the other managers, looking back at the silly points we’ve dropped this season.

“The players have turned a different corner now, hopefully Monday’s win will kick us on for the last three games.”

The remaining games of the five main title contenders are: Guisborough: today Dunston UTS (home), April 18th Morpeth (away). Marske: today Consett (away), April 18th Bishop Auckland (home), 21st Celtic Nation (home).

West Auckland: today Penrith (away), April 18th West Allotment (away), 25th Consett (away). Shildon: today Whitley Bay (home), April 15th Morpeth (away), 18th Celtic Nation (away), 21st Sunderland RCA (away), 25th Durham (home), 29th Bedlington (away). North Shields: today Durham City (home), April 15th Bedlington (home), 18th Dunston UTS (away), 22nd Morpeth (home), 25th Sunderland RCA (away), 28th Celtic Nation (away).

Marske chairman Peter Collinson has decided to quit at the end of the season.

Collinson, who has been in charge for three years, says that he will step down as soon as a suitable replacement is found.

“I’ve decided to resign due to increased workload within my personal business, family commitments and my personal health. I am not leaving the club completely and I have already offered my services as commercial manager to the next chairman, to help ensure that the club continues to be in a financially sound position,” he said.

“I personally see this as a positive move for the club as it frees my time up from the day-to-day running duties and allows me to concentrate on the bigger picture.”

Shildon manager Gary Forrest is hoping that their Durham Challenge Cup win and their win at Dunston UTS is the catalyst for a push for the league title.

The Railwaymen won the Durham Challenge Cup for the second successive year with plenty to spare against a young Gateshead side – the Tynesiders had fielded a much stronger team during previous games in the competition but had an important Conference game at Grimsby the following day.

Nevertheless, it was still an impressive victory, as they could have scored more. And on Tuesday, they had an excellent 1-0 win at Dunston UTS, who had beaten them 3-0 in the league the week before.

Forrest said; “That’s the first Cup under our belt, hopefully we can push on now and gain confidence from the two wins. Before the final, our confidence had been hit slightly by the league defeat against Dunston, but hopefully those wins have restored it.

“We’ve still got a very good chance of winning the league. We played some very good football against Gateshead, and when we passed the ball around, looked a very good team.”

However, Shildon’s injury list has increased, with keeper Kyle Hayes now added with a foot injury he sustained in the final, and he has been replaced by Lewis Graham.

Meanwhile, Shildon are setting up two new junior teams for the start of next season.

The club is steadily building up its youth section, with the aims of providing coaching for youngsters of all ages, and giving them an opportunity to play football for other teams within the club.

Director of coaching Chris Hughes said; “We are setting up two new teams for the 2015/16 season at U14 and U16 age groups in Saturday leagues. We would like these teams to be as strong as possible so that they can feed into the U18's, reserves and first team.”

The club is also organising trial games at Dean Street in the last week of April for under 14s and under 15s on Monday 27th April, and Under 12s and Under 13s on Thursday 30th April.

The Under 18s are also playing Middlesbrough on April 28th, and the reserves are playing Walker on April 29th, both games at Dean Street.

If anyone would like to book a place for any of the trial games contact;

Chris Hughes 07793844952/christopher.hughes@live.co.uk with the name of the player/age group and preferred position.