Darius Charles believes AFC Wimbledon must gear themselves up for the mother of all run-ins as they chase playoff glory.

Of the nine opponents Neal Ardley’s side still have to face, only Crawley, who visit Kingsmeadow on April 16 and Newport in the season finale on May 7 appear to have little to play for.

The former Brentford defender on loan from Burton says the Wombles can therefore expect the ante to be raised physically and emotionally starting with Good Friday’s visit to relegation threatened Hartlepool and the hosting of fellow promotion contenders Portsmouth on Easter Monday.

“What you find at this stage of the season is the games are tougher because nearly everyone is fighting for something,” he said.

Ex-Bee: Darius Charles in his Brentford days

“York were fighting for their lives to stay in the league on Saturday and now we go to Hartlepool for another tough game against a team battling for survival.

“Then Portsmouth who like us are trying to go up a league.”

Ealing-born Charles, just back from a year out of the game with serious injury, has travelled this nail-biting road before having starred in Stevenage’s successful League 2 playoff campaign of 2011.

He believes, while the Wombles’ fans may follow every twist and turn among the contenders and have the League Two table as their computer home page, he and his new teammates must focus on keeping their own house in order.

“There’s no point in looking at the league table at a time like this,” he added. “You have to make sure you take care of your own results and if you do that you start to find other things fall into place.”