Spartans, once looking nailed on for a top seven finish, have struggled in recent weeks to drop down to tenth in the National League North table.
They’re six points adrift of seventh-placed Spennymoor Town and know they will need an immediate upturn in fortunes to have any chance of making it in.
Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Chorley was their sixth in a row and assistant manager Neal Hooks gave an honest assessment.
“It’s disappointing in the manner in which we lose the game,” Hooks told the club’s website.
“You hope there is a bit of fight in there. We’re still in a good position – there still is a chance of the play-offs but that window is kind of narrowing down.
“We probably need to string five wins together now to give us a chance to do that but when you’re playing Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, it’s looking very unlikely.
“The disappointing thing is that we have been in there all season but we haven’t fully kicked on at the right time of the year when we needed to be scrapping 1-0s.
“But at the moment, it’s six defeats on the bounce and we haven’t even had a shot on target (at Chorley).”
For more news, reaction and action from across the National League, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.