Soham Town Rangers manager Robbie Mason has finished the season with a huge amount of pride a little bit of frustration.

Mason successfully steered the Greens to Bostik League North Division safety - eventually finishing three places and six points above the relegation zone.

They spent almost all of the first half of the campaign in the drop-zone before dragging themselves out of trouble and Mason admits they could ultimately have ended up much higher than their final 16th spot.

He said: “We had high hopes of building on the mid-table finish of the previous season and possibly challenging for the play-offs.

“Sadly we endured a really tough start that left us fighting at the bottom, but the guys stuck together, stayed behind us and worked really hard to get us out of trouble.

“It’s disappointing to have not picked up more points against teams around us in the last few weeks when we’ve taken our feet off the gas a little bit.

“We could easily have finished in mid-table again had that not happened, but we did the job of getting ourselves to safety.

“We have no reserve side, no youth team and we’ve had to work with a couple of cuts to the budget as well so the players have done fantastically in the circumstances.

“Hopefully we can now kick on next year. We’re all determined to climb the table and challenge for silverware.”

Rangers ended the season on a low note last Saturday when suffering their joint heaviest defeat of the campaign.

They were beaten 4-0 at promotion-chasing Aveley when playing the final hour with 10 men following the dismissal of goalkeeper Craig Foxall.

Soham fell behind in the 19th minute and their predicament worsened considerably when Foxall saw red for handling outside his area.

Defender Lewis Endacott took over in goal and was powerless to prevent the hosts from doubling their lead from the penalty spot on the stroke of half-time.

Two further Aveley goals followed in the second period although Mason insisted the final scoreline was not an accurate reflection of the contest.

Mason, who hopes to resume his playing career next season following knee surgery, added: “It was really frustrating to lose 4-0 on a day when we were the better team for large parts of the game even with 10 men.

“It was always going to be tough to face a team bound for the play-offs and the red card only made it even more difficult, but the scoreline certainly doesn’t tell the story.”