ILKLEY Town finished the season with five consecutive league defeats, but that should not detract from what has been a fine domestic campaign for the club.

Town will go into next season off the back of achieving a fifth place finish, meaning they have achieved the highest league position in their history.

After the team's final day defeat to Carlton Athletic, manager Simon Armstrong said that he was keen for the club to recognise the magnitude of that achievement and he hopes they can use it to push on next time around.

"You always have to ask yourself how you can improve both on and off the pitch and for us, a major point for next season is how do we improve the use of our facilities," he said.

"We have just hired a full-time football development officer, who has a lot of work to do in regards to generating income and initiatives within the community to grow the club."

Although some may have seen Ilkley's youthful and inexperienced final day line-up as a negative, Armstrong emphasised the importance of that as a base for the future.

He said: "We had seven players under 21 in the side, which is massive for us as a club, looking at next season and beyond.

"On the pitch, we need to ensure our play always gets better by nurturing the young players and bringing in some experience if we can.

"Undoubtedly there are challenges in the off season but we are looking forward to them."

There were some impressive statistics to emerge from Ilkley's fine season. Lee Spires hit 26 goals in 27 league appearances and they found the back of the net 68 times overall, a total bettered by the top three only.

After this season's achievements, can the side do even better next year and challenge for the 2018/19 title?