REDDITCH United’s title hopes in the Southern League Premier are hanging by a thread after a frustrating weekend.

Goalless draws against top-five rivals Leamington on Saturday and Dunstable on Monday saw the Valley Stadium outfit squander chances to keep the pressure on main rivals Poole.

While United were joint top with their Devon rivals after Monday’s stalemate, Poole could open a three-point lead over them if they defeated Paulton Rovers on Tuesday night.

With the prospect of a three-point deduction as punishment for playing Jazz Luckie and Jim Mutton against St Neots when they were suspended hanging over the club, McDonald believes his side need to bounce back at mid-table Dorchester on Saturday (3pm ko).

The Southern League was set to release a statement about Redditch’s situation today.

United have not won for the last three games but still remain in a strong position to make the play-offs, which would be an improvement on last season’s sixth place finish.

They have four games of the season left and would need to win all of them to win automatic promotion to the National League.

McDonald said: “We haven’t given up on the league yet but I think Saturday is very important. If we win then we’ve still got a chance of winning the title.

“Whatever happens, we want to finish higher than we did last season and if we did that we’d make the play-offs.”

United have suffered a setback as striker Luckie, who has just returned from a two-match suspension, is set to be absent for several weeks with a toe injury.

With key man Jamey Osborne out for the season with a dislocated shoulder, United’s attacking options are being stretched to the limit.

For the second game in a row, United were unable to hit the back of the net and were disrupted by a Dunstable side happy to disturb their rhythm.

McDonald admitted that his frustration boiled over.

He said: “From the kick-off Dunstable were wasting time and it just got to me at one stage.

“Their goalkeeper went down very easily for treatment and I threw the ball back on the pitch.

“We almost scored, but it wasn’t really in the spirit of the game and I apologised to their manager. It was very emotional at the end and the players were disappointed not to have won the game.”