Pic: Bruce Fenn
GATESHEAD manager Neil Aspin knows it will take a minor miracle now for his side to reach the play-offs but assured the club's supporters big progress has been made as he confirmed he will be in charge next season.
The Heed manager has stopped short of throwing in the towel completely but knows a damaging home defeat to Maidstone last weekend means their top five chances are all-but over.
A draw in Friday's match at Sutton United will be enough to improve on last season's haul of 67 points.
Aspin says that points to progress, although the manager says the squad he has assembled this season could have reached the top five.
“I have seen progress from last season to this season definitely,” he told The NLP. “I've seen progress too from Christmas to now, which I've been happy with.
“Last weekend down at Dover we gave ourselves a reminder that we can't let our standards drop at any point in this league. We were ten matches unbeaten before that and that run gave us a good chance of finishing in the play-off places.
“But there has always got to be a little bit of realism attached to it all. For Gateshead, it's 57 years since they have been in the Football League – it's not like they have got a history of being higher than they are.”
Even still, Gateshead are likely to smash last year's points total and they have every chance of improving on their ninth-place finish from last season as well.
Aspin will be at the International Stadium for 2017-18 to see if he can go one stage further if they can't do the job this time around.
“You have got to always try and get better,” Aspin adds. “We feel we are better than last year and we'll look to push on next season as well.”
