HARRY Arter admits the next month could be crunch time in Cherries’ bid to have the last laugh on their play-off doubters.

The midfielder believes Cherries are entering a potentially defining period – with the lead-up to a series of tough fixtures in March likely to prove key to the club’s promotion aspirations.

Following a six-match unbeaten run, Lee Bradbury’s men have climbed into eighth position and sit just five points adrift of Stevenage in the final League One play-off berth.

Cherries’ next five games are against teams well below them in the table – with bottom-placed Chesterfield up next tomorrow and relegation-threatened Roch-dale completing the sequence.

High-flying MK Dons are the opponents on February 25 before Cherries’ credentials come in for a stern examination against the likes of Charlton, Stevenage and Sheffield Wednesday during March.

Arter, 22, told the Daily Echo: “Looking at the fixtures, every game is a winnable game. But we have got a few lower teams in January and February.

“March is a really big month and we know we have to get points on the board now to, probably, stand a really good chance.

“If we are in and around it in March, then I feel like anyone could grab that fifth or sixth spot.

“We know what we want to achieve and we have wanted to achieve it all season.

“The fans laughed at us when the lads said – when we were battling relegation – that we wanted to achieve the play-offs. Fair enough, they wrote us off and the performances at home were nowhere near good enough.

“But we always had an inner belief and that is starting to show out on the pitch now.”

Cherries found themselves in the bottom four after 15 games of the campaign.

But the battling 2-1 victory over Tranmere on Saturday stretched their unbeaten run to six matches – and raised hopes of completing a miraculous turnaround during the run-in.

Midfielder Arter, who made his 29th appearance of the campaign in Cherries’ latest win, felt it proved the Dorset outfit had managed to replicate their away performances on home territory.

The victory was Cherries’ third in a row at Seward Stadium.

Arter added: “Our away form was always very good and we always knew if we could bring that back to the home ground, we would be a force. We are starting to be that now.

“We are doing well in the league and we have got to continue pushing on. We can’t take anything for granted and have to carry on working hard. I think we will only get better.”

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