The big games just keep coming for Macclesfield Town, and Efe Sodje is predicting another arduous afternoon when they head north for Gateshead.

Macc's assistant manager says the fixture represents a chance to get one of the three - or possibly four - wins he feels they need. A fourth straight clean sheet would go a long way to achieving that, and knocking the Heed further out of the reckoning.

But it won't be a walk in the park.

Efe Sodje

Gateshead currently occupy ninth spot, 11 points behind Forest Green Rovers in fifth. Even wins in their three games in hand, due to FA Cup and FA Trophy runs, would leave them two points off the play-off pace. But their manager hasn't yet given up hope of sneaking in with a strong run to the finish line.

They made the play-off final last season where they lost to Cambridge United, so they're not to be under-estimated.

And Macc haven't beaten Gateshead since their promotion season under Sammy McIlroy. The earlier meeting at the Moss Rose ended in a 1-1 draw, Arthur Gnahoua the Macc man on target and Paul Lewis the recipient of a red card in injury-time that day.

"You have to remember, and we told the players, we were playing against a team that are bottom of the table and they're fighting for their lives so we needed to fight to get our promotion and the boys dug it out" insisted Sodje once Macc had seen out a 1-0 win over AFC Telford United.

"It will be another tough game for us on Saturday. Gateshead pass the ball about well, it's windy up there too but our boys are up for it, it's going to be a battle.

"We are going to be going up this season, we're fighting for it."

Dan Cowan (above) and Alex Grant (below) have excelled at full-back this week

The Heed were pegged back in a 1-1 draw at home to struggling Welling on Tuesday night after Alex Rodman had scored his 11th goal of the season. The club's leading scorer was later dismissed for an off-the-ball incident, meaning he's unavailable for the hosts tomorrow.

Macc have their own absences though. Just four players were on the subs' bench in their midweek win over Telford as winger Danny Rowe and first-choice full-backs Andy Halls and Scott Barrow were missing through injury.

There's enough cover for Rowe on the flanks, with Adriano Moke, Chris Holroyd and Theo Bailey-Jones - who's extended his loan from Wrexham until the end of the season - ready, willing and able.

In defence youngsters Dan Cowan and Alex Grant, the man-of-the-match, acquitted themselves admirably on Tuesday and should Halls or Barrow recover in time to face the Heed there could be a pleasant selection headache in store for manager John Askey and his assistant.

"Dan is a young lad, he's done well and it's hard for him because he knows he's second-choice (behind Halls) but every time he comes in he does a brilliant job, he never lets anyone down," added Sodje.

"It's hard for Alex too because he's had to move from the centre to go to left-back and he's slotted in well, he's been good for us.

"Thierry (Audel, who scored Tuesday night's winning goal) played well, when he came in we knew we had to do more work with the defence. It's basics that we wanted him to do because we wanted him relaxed and just doing the basic stuff right."