EMBATTLED Aldershot Town boss Gary Waddock has spoken of his “devastation” in the wake of his side’s relegation from the National League.

The Shots’ fate was finally sealed after a 1-1 draw against Hartlepool United at the EBB Stadium on Saturday, and now they must face up to life in National League South next season.

“A number of different emotions went through my mind at 5pm on Saturday – devastation, upset, anger. It was a very sad day for the club. Obviously we apologise for that but we have to try to put it right,” he said.

“I’ll take my share of the blame but everybody else has to as well, it doesn’t just rely on one person with the blame being directed at one person. As a whole we have to look at ourselves and we have to try to make sure we do our best to bounce back.

“You know when you come into this role that when things are going well it’s everybody else who’s done well and when things are going badly it’s the manager’s fault, but I’m big enough, old enough and experienced enough to know that, but it’s a case of all of us at this football club have to look at ourselves and make sure we all improve going forward.”

And he added: “I’m sure I’ll find there were a number of things I could have done differently when I have time to reflect on the season and there will have been things that I would like to have improved on, but I also think we have to look across the board at the club itself in general.”

With his side now facing trips to the likes of Chippenham Town, Oxford City and Truro next season, Waddock’s own future is now firmly under the spotlight. So will he stay?

“That’s a question you would have to put to the chairman and board of directors,” he said, “they hold the key to that. They offered me the contracts when I first came back to the club so they will be in charge of my future and my destiny. It’s a conversation I need to have with them and I need to see what the club have got planned going forward.”

The dire straits the club finds itself in couldn’t be any further removed from the huge sense of pride and optimism surrounding the EBB Stadium this time 12 months ago as The Shots eyed promotion back to the Football League and a possible trip to Wembley via the play-offs.

“We’re a good side box to box but the critical areas on a football pitch are the penalty areas and we haven’t done well enough,” said Waddock, whose side had a desperate run of 18 games without a win over the winter – a slide from which they never recovered.

“We lost a lot of players last summer who went on to other clubs and we’ve had a number of injuries with the current crop of players, so there are a lot of factors behind where we’ve ended up. There are no guarantees on anything in football, so we’ve had two years where we overachieved and this year we have under achieved. It’s been very, very tough.”

Aldershot have three games of their miserable season left – starting tomorrow (Good Friday) with a trip to Dover, followed by a home game against relegated Havant & Waterlooville on Monday before a final trip to rock-bottom Maidstone United on April 27.

“We conceded far too many goals and didn’t score enough,” said Waddock, whose top scorer is Scott Rendell with just seven goals. “The real areas where you win and lose games are in those penalty areas and we’ve lacked in both areas.

“Now we want to win some games to finish the season off with some pride.”