With the 2 defeats against Darlington and Stourbridge ending any faint hopes we had of making the play offs we caught up with Royals manager Neil Tooth this morning to get his thoughts on the season so far and what to expect for the remainder of the season.

"My initial thoughts are ones of disappointment if im honest as I really thought we could make a push for the play offs." Said Tooth, "I know a lot of people will read this and laugh at that but I believe you need to have a goal that you look to achieve every season and I will never accept survival as the be all of what my team should be achieving regardless of what league we are in."

With The Royals sitting 17 points clear of the relegation places we asked Toothy if he thought his side had over achieved this season ?

"In most so called experts eyes we were relegated before a ball had even been kicked this season and history tells us we are not yet safe with 45 points but as you say we are 17 points clear of danger and 12 points short of the play offs so I think we have massively over achieved and im very proud of my team for having a go and proving a number of people wrong. I'm never one to go on about budgets as I know from experience that winning promotion is tough no matter how much money you have to spend but we are competing week in week out with clubs that pay 2 sometimes 3 times what we do and we are more than holding our own. Our last 2 games have been against clubs in that bracket and we were disappointed to not get anything from both games but the big difference is they can bring on lads who they have paid money for in Darlingtons case or players signed form the Conference in Stourbridge's case where as I look to my bench and I had a lad from our 21s and another lad signed from 2 leagues below and that is where the bigger clubs hold an advantage over us."

In recent weeks Ilkeston have cut their cloth and released 7 players with a view to next season so we asked Tooth what his plans are going forward ?

"The next mini target is 3 wins to secure our status for next season after that I want us to finish in the top ten so we will not be throwing the towel in. We also have the chance to finish the highest the club has ever done in its history and id like to do that for the chairman who has been very supportive to me and my team. What I will be doing is looking to next season over the coming weeks and there will be some player movements both in and out as I want to secure the majority of the lads I want to keep next season and also look to add some players in areas where we have not done so well. Its also very important that we maintain our efforts for the supporters who are continuing to grow in numbers as they pay good money and they deserve a team, that is fully committed right to the very last kick of the very last game."