Threave Rovers are now just four points from promotion.
The Castle Douglas side inflicted a rare defeat on Kilsyth Athletic on Saturday to stay just one point behind third placed St Peter’s.
And Threave appear to be in the driving seat as they have three games left while their rivals have just one game to go.
But boss Vinnie Parker warned: “It’s still four points we need, and at any level four points out of three games is still a big task.
“We’re probably on the front foot, we’ve got a bit of momentum about us and we’re going really well.
“We’ve got a group of selfless players. We took 18 boys on Saturday and everybody played their role – whether it was coming on for five minutes and holding up play, making sure we got that win or just having that skill set on the bench and being prepared to come on.
“Everyone has been really selfless and putting the team before themselves, which is the reason we’ve kicked on a bit and looking a bit healthier.”
Threave fell behind on Saturday when some defensive mistakes allowed Lewis Taylor to put Kilsyth in front.
But just before the break the Castle Douglas side were level, Ross Thomson’s header being parried and Dean Brotherston netted the rebound.
And they completed the turnaround after an hour when Thomson’s header found the net with some help from Lewis Todd.
Kilsyth’s hopes were dealt a further blow when they had McLaughlin sent off with Threave seeing out the game to pick up all three points and gain revenge for their defeat earlier in the season.
Parker said: “I didn’t have to say too much, it was pretty much player-led. They were desperate to go up there and settle the score.
“We dominated possession, we asked Danny Dunglinson to drop a bit deeper – we’ve played with three up front most of the season but we took one away and brought him back a bit deeper.
“It’s a bit of an industrious position as you’re plugging gaps and breaking up play. It’s a selfless position. That was really the difference between us getting caught on the break like we did when we were caught at Meadow Park.
“The discussion before the game was they need to win more than we did, we just need to avoid defeats, I love a boxing analogy so we said that you don’t have to knock anyone out in the first round, you can take it into the championship round and can avoid getting defeated.”
Threave are technically at home this weekend, their game against fifth placed Thorn Athletic being moved from Meadow Park to Gretna’s Raydale Park due to the wet weather.
Parker added: “Thorn were a decent side when we played them earlier in the season.
“They’ve had a couple of bad results over the past couple of weeks – they had a heavy defeat against West Park on Saturday – but they have a really good manager and will be wanting to push on.”
