North Leigh boss Mark Gee has accepted his side’s hopes of making the Evo-Stik Southern League Division 1 South & West play-offs are all but over.

It followed Saturday’s 4-2 home defeat by Bridgwater Town which saw them fall 12 points behind fifth-placed Larkhall Athletic with five games to play.

“We’d need to win all of our games between now and the end of the season and hope that the sides above us don’t pick up any points, which isn’t going to happen.

“We don’t like it, but we’re realistic enough to say that it’s over for us.”

Having slipped up in their previous home game against Evesham United, it was vital the Millers got back to winning ways.

However, they came a cropper against the Somerset outfit.

After an early scare, the Millers took a deserved lead 38 minutes.

A header by Andy Gunn was saved by Bridgwater keeper Ben John, but promising youngster Jacob Hughes tapped home the rebound from close range.

Bridgwater equalised in the 51st minute when Kyle Tooze hit a free-kick through the wall that keeper Matt Bulman got a glove to but could not prevent going in.

It got worse for the Millers three minutes later when the visitors took the lead.

A slip by Gunn let in Ross McNab, who saw his shot saved by Bulman only for David O’Hare to ram home the rebound from ten yards.

In the 68th minute, McNab made a strong run down the left and squared the ball to Tooze who clipped the ball home from close range for 3-1.

Jamie Cook gave North Leigh hope in the 87th minute with a sweet left-foot volley from the edge of the box following a Kieran Sanders corner to make it 3-2.

But any hopes they had of snatching a point were dashed when Bridgwater substitute Joe Bushin fired a great shot into the far corner of the net in injury time.

Gee said his side got what they deserved.

“We were awful. To be fair, we were short of numbers, but it wasn’t good enough and we paid the price,” he said.

“We had a lot more of the ball than they did, but we should have scored more when we were on top, and kept a clean sheet.”

North Leigh: Bulman, Else, Caton, OsborneRicketts, Gunn, Westlake, Hughes (Williams 79), Hopkins, Cook, Sanders, McNish. Subs not used: Turk, Seacole.

Attendance: 60.

On Saturday, North Leigh face a trip to AFC Totton.