Boss Rob Smith accepts AFC Telford United need “a miracle” to make the Blue Square North play-offs, admitting: “We’ve not been good enough all season.”

The Bucks went down 1-0 at home to Stalybridge Celtic on Saturday, extending their winless run to six games and leaving their hopes of a top five finish in tatters.

Stalybridge moved above Telford to fifth place as a result of their win, level on points with Smith’s side – but with five games in hand.

And with other contenders – including Droylsden, Eastwood, Ilkeston and Corby – all having significant numbers of games in hand as well, Smith knows the game is all but up.

“It’s well and truly out of our hands now, we’ve just got to go and play the last six games, see how many points we can amass and see what happens,” said Smith.

“We’re out of it barring a miracle. We’d need to win all six games and hope other teams slip up.

“It’ll be disappointing seeing teams like Stalybridge and Hinckley in the play-offs when I think we should be there, but we haven’t deserved it.

“There’s no excuses, we haven’t been good enough all season and I hold my hands up to that.

“We’ve got better, but it’s all been too little, too late.”

Telford’s hopes on Saturday were not helped by losing their star striker, leading scorer Andy Brown. to a stomach virus that also effected several other members of the squad.

Brown was unable to feature at all, while left-back Sean Newton had to go off at half-time because of the effects of the illness.

“Andy Brown had been sick all night,” he added. “He had a stomach bug and so did Danny Carey-Bertram.

“I could hear the fans calling for us to get him on, but he’d been sick.

“Kevin O’Connor was struggling with it as well, and Sean Newton was sick at half-time.”

By CHRIS HUDSON