Luke Williams: Notts County boss says National League title race is 'over'
- Published
Luke Williams was appointed by Notts County after Ian Burchnall left last summer
Notts County manager Luke Williams believes automatic promotion may now be out of reach for his side.
Notts' 1-1 draw at Barnet left them three points behind National League leaders Wrexham.
They still have seven games to play but Williams told BBC Radio Nottingham the title race was "over".
He said: "The title race is not realistic any more for us. Even if we win there, we still can't close the gap enough for it to be realistic."
Wrexham - co-owned by Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds - have won eight of their past 10 league matches and have a game in hand on Notts, who they will meet at the Racecourse Ground on 10 April.
Williams described the result against Barnet as feeling "like a loss" and said the second-half performance was "terrible".
They are 23 points ahead of third-placed Woking and although Williams believes the Magpies will have to try and return to the English Football League via the play-offs, he said he would ensure they continue to play well in the remaining regular-season fixtures.
"We just have to focus on making sure that we perform so brilliantly that we protect our mentality and that we don't feel sorry for ourselves," he added.
"We are preparing to make sure we win the rest of our fixtures and see what happens after that. In football, something can change out of the blue but I am talking about, realistically, what I think.
"I am not going to concentrate on this one goal [automatic promotion] which can be taken away even if we are incredible.
"We just have to focus now on making sure that we have no sulking, no victim mentality, and that we play ferocious and make the best possible performances we can."