Mark Beard insists he has not given up hope of an unlikely play-off place this season after Tooting & Mitcham stretched their unbeaten run to five games at the weekend.

Granted, all five games have been draws, but impressive ones nonetheless - including Saturday’s 2-2 draw at league leaders Sutton United when the Terrors battled back from 2-0 down.

And Beard has served notice he has no intention of letting the season simply fizzle out.

He said: “The plan was to get Christmas out of the way in reasonably good shape and then really attack things in the New Year.

“We have 66 points still to play for and the challenge for us is to get as many of those points as possible.

“In our last few games we have come up against some of the best teams in this division and in my opinion we have outplayed them.

“I am not going to come out and say we will make the play-offs, but if we can turn the draws into wins and play with the confidence we have been anything is possible.”

Jason Henry and a last-gasp Kiernan Hughes-Mason goal secured a battling point at Gander Green Lane.

And the Tooting boss felt his side fully warranted the draw.

Beard added: “I thought the result was the least we deserved.

“I still hold by my claim that we are the best footballing side in the division and nothing I saw Saturday changed my mind.

“Now though we have the battling qualities as well and we fight until the final whistle.

“All we need is a win to get that confidence really flowing and we have the perfect chance against Wealdstone on Saturday.

“Win that and the league table would look a lot rosier for us.”

Tooting & Mitcham’s next three matches: Jan 8 Wealdstone (h), 11 Redbridge (LSC, a), 15 Hendon (a)