AFC Totton manager Steve Riley admits the next four games against the Southern League Division One South & West’s frontrunners will give a clear indication of how well his side are developing.

Starting with tomorrow’s trip to second-place Taunton, the coming weeks see the Stags face all of the top four clubs in the table.

Totton, having been relegated while embroiled in financial woe from the Southern Premier last season, had a wonderful start to 2015, winning five in a row and climbing to a position just off the play-offs. They have lost two and drawn one of their last three – most recently defeated 2-0 by Shortwood – but still remain just six points off the top five.

Riley insists that by mid-March, after the Stags have welcomed table toppers Merthyr, the picture will be a lot clearer.

“We still haven’t had a bad start to 2015,” he said.

“I said to the lads before the Didcot game (2-2) that the next six games will show us where we are as a football club, and as a team.

“It’s the last little bit to the season as you go into March and April with teams jostling for positions.

“I spoke to the chairman about our situation and said that we shouldn’t get carried away with the five wins we had in January. But you want to be ambitious. You look at all the teams that are in this league, and then you think to yourself ‘where do we fit into that’.

“I said at the beginning of the season that if we finished mid-table then we’ve consolidated after all the club’s gone through in the past three seasons.

“The chairman and I spoke about consolidating this season and that’s what this is.

“The way we started in 2015, people were thinking ‘here we go, let’s get into the play-offs’.

“You want to win every game, you want to try and be up there, and it would be great to get promoted.

“But we have to make sure the backing and the sponsorship is there so you can improve.

“We’d have to improve the side if you go to the next level, because a lot of these players played at Southern Premier League and we still got relegated.

“It’s going to be interesting over the next few weeks and we’ll see where we are come the middle of March.

“It’s going to be tough but we’re up for a challenge.”

Taunton, who won 2-1 at Totton in October, will be looking to bounce back after a 2-1 loss at runaway leaders Merthyr last weekend.