Mark Phillips knows Braintree Town have to just keep “churning” out results in their quest for the Vanarama National League play-offs.

The Iron head into today’s trip to Gateshead sitting sixth in the table after a 1-1 draw with Forest Green Rovers and a brilliant 1-0 win at Grimsby Town on Tuesday that kept hopes of securing a top-five finish on track However, Phillips knows that may not be done with sparkling performances in all of their remaining three games.

The 34-year-old former Southend United central defender knows what it takes to mount a successful promotion challenge, having won the League Two title while at Brentford in the 2008/9 season and he knows this stage of the campaign is all about results.

Phillips said: “This season has been very similar to when I was with Brentford and we went on to win the league.

“We just kept churning out results and I said that to the boys here.

“I doesn’t matter if we don’t play well, we just have to keep churning the results out.

“That’s going to be the difference.

“For me, a promotion-winning team or one that gets into the play-offs, just keeps doing it, game-in game-out.

“There have been a few slip-ups but look at who we’re coming up against.

“It will never be easy as a part-time team but we’ll keep giving it a go.

“Everything is in your own hands in football and it has to be about what you do rather than what anyone else does.

“You can’t worry about people elsewhere or what has happened in the past.

“You have to look forward at the game that is coming up or the game that you’re in and deal with it to the best of your ability.

“We were probably odds-on favourites for the play-offs before we lost the three games recently but look at us, we are a small club with small resources and we’re pulling up trees.

“We like a challenge, don’t worry about that.”

Phillips knows his experience in the Football League can be a valuable asset in Braintree’s dressing room in the run-in to the end of the season and he is keen to use it to help the Iron’s push for the top five.

“Some of the lads haven’t been in this situation before,” he said.

“There are some in the team who have when they came up to this league but there are others who won’t know the challenge that’s ahead of us.

“You have to know that by being part of a successful team.

“You have to part of a league-winning or cup-winning side to experience it and know what it takes.

“So I try to use my experience to help out without heaping any pressure on.

“I recognise the opportunity that we have.

“We have real strength in the fact that we’re all just normal blokes.

“There are very honest, 100 per cent performances in every game and that’s what you get.

“That comes from the manager downwards.

“After losing the three games recently, we are just concentrating on our own jobs. We take it game by game because we’ve shown all season that we can be there or thereabouts and we don’t want those games to have cost us.

“We’ve gone back to the drawing board and we’ll keep taking each one as it comes.”