Luke Oliver reckons City are “two per cent” off being a decent side.

The big defender is set to swell the ranks at Macclesfield tonight after making his comeback from a hamstring injury in the 2-1 loss against Stevenage.

For Oliver, Saturday was another example of the fine margin between success and failure. Eight of City’s last nine defeats have been by a single goal.

He admitted: “It’s very annoying because it’s not as if we’ve been thumped too many times.

“I don’t think there’s a lot of difference between the teams in most games. But maybe we’re just lacking that extra two per cent to get the result.

“I personally feel on our day we can beat anyone. We’ve just not had enough of those days.

“We come away every time thinking the performance wasn’t too bad and maybe we’ll get it right again the next week. It’s very frustrating for everyone.”

Oliver is not predicting a nasty sting in the tail of a wretched season – and City can do themselves a huge favour by leap-frogging Macc with a victory.

He said: “We’re very confident that we won’t get caught up in any relegation battle. But we have to bounce back again tonight and get as far away from the bottom two as we can.

“We want to get into mid-table with a strong finish so things are looking up for next season.

“Over the course of the season, we’ve probably done better against the better teams.

“It’s the points that we’ve dropped against those lower down which is why we are where we are. We need to correct that tonight.

“It will be a battle and we’ve got to stamp our authority on them.”