League leaders Town were coasting with a 3-0 lead after 58 minutes at Highbury, but after two lapses in defence the match ended 4-2.

This seventh successive home win in Blue Square North preserved Town's three-point advantage but Mellon feels believes the lessons of those closing stages could prove vital in the run-in to the end of the season.

Mellon said: "We are obviously disappointed to have given away two goals at home. We have to learn to read the signs at times.

"When we are winning games 3-0 we just have to finish them off. We have to do everything right for the next five or ten minutes, then just see the game out.

"I don't think we kept the ball anywhere near well enough and we made some wrong decisions.

"We allowed them two soft goals, one from a set-piece, when we switched off at the back."

But Mellon reaffirmed his point that it is results that matter most at this stage of the season for a Town side still unbeaten unbeaten at home in the league – they last dropped points at Highbury on November 10, when Harrogate Town earned a 2-2 draw.

"There are going to be games like Saturday's at this stage of the season and we just have to keep racking up the points.

"We have a massively talented squad but at the minute it's important just to keep on winning games."

Mellon is already billing Saturday's home clash with fellow promotion candidates Hinckley as another vital match – it's Town's seventh successive home game, after which they must play ten of their final 15 away.

The manager added: "We have had a lot of games that we knew we had to win, and so far the players have responded so full credit to them.

"We move into a massively important game on Saturday. I thinks these games suit us better – when we know how big and important games are, we usually rise to them."

Title rivals Southport have two games in hand but must also play most of their remaining matches away. They also face the possible distraction of being in two county cup quarter-finals, starting with a home clash against Barrow in the Lancashire Co-operative Trophy tonight.