Harry Pinchard is counting down the hours to Gloucester City’s winner-takes-all clash at AFC Totton on Bank Holiday Monday.

The teams meet in the Southern League’s Premier Division South play-off final with Gloucester hoping to make a speedy return to National League North or South.

“I can’t wait for the game to start, it’s massive,” said 23-year-old Pinchard. “It’s definitely the biggest game of my career so far.”

Pinchard, a central midfielder, is in his second season with Gloucester after starting out with Hereford, and he’s overcome a major setback to make a big impression in the second half of the campaign.

“I broke my leg in September,” he said. “I played quite well in my first season with the club, even though we got relegated but I’m fully fit now.”

Pinchard returned to the team just before Christmas, and the left-footed box-to-box player continued: “I’m comfortable playing anywhere in midfield, I get plenty of assists but I’m trying to add more goals to my game.”

The Chepstow-born star found the back of the net in the exciting play-off semi-final success at Walton & Hersham on Wednesday, slotting the fourth penalty in the 5-3 shootout win after the game had finished 2-2 at the end of 120 minutes.

“I hit it bottom right,” said Pinchard. “I will definitely take one against Totton if I need to, I’ve just got to choose which side.”

Totton who finished second in the 22-strong Premier Division South, 11 points and two places above Gloucester, booked their place in the final with a 4-3 win over Dorchester Town.

Gloucester and Totton have shared two draws in the league this season, and Pinchard said: “This game is a one-off. We’ve said all season that we fancy ourselves against any team in the division.”   

Totton will provide a different challenge to Gloucester than the one posed by Walton & Hersham.

“Walton & Hersham are a good footballing team, they’re a young side,” said Pinchard. “Totton are more experienced, they know how to manage a game.

“They caused us a few problems when we played them at home, they are more direct, they don’t play out from the back.”

Gloucester will head down to Totton on Monday morning ahead of the 3pm kick-off and they will certainly be in very good spirits.

“Wednesday night was great, we were buzzing after the game,” said Pinchard. “We were really pleased with our performance. We struggled early on but after we went 2-0 down we played really well.”

They had plenty of supporters cheering them on and the fans will be heading to Hampshire in their numbers, of course, with Pinchard hoping they can give them another performance to remember.