GATESHEAD boss Gary Mills is preparing for a summer of change after his side’s final home game of the season ended in a 4-2 defeat to Forest Green.

The Heed round off the Vanarama Conference season with a trip to league leaders Barnet on Saturday, with their opponents needing a victory to guarantee winning the title and returning to the Football League.

Gateshead can finish no higher than eighth after winning just one of their last eight games, and after missing out in the play-off final last season, the club have rarely looked like mounting a realistic challenge for promotion.

January brought the high of a first appearance in the FA Cup third round for 60 years, but Mills concedes his side have underperformed, even if the lengthy injury list provides at least a partial explanation for their failings.

“My priority is to take Gateshead into the Football League,” said Mills. “I’ve come here to be successful and the chairman has brought me here to be successful.

“It’s always lovely to break little records, and we’ve moved on in the last 18 months, make no mistake about that. But we lost major players when we had those games in hand at the turn of the New Year, and it hasn’t quite gone how we’d have wanted. We’ll do everything in our power to come back stronger next season.”

Saturday’s game saw goals from Kevin Sainte-Luce and Jon Shaw count for little as Forest Green responded with strikes from Kurtis Guthrie, Rob Sinclair and Jon Parkin (2).

Gateshead: Bartlett; Baxter, Curtis, Shaw, Pattison (Orrell 65); Gjokaj (Finnigan 59), Chandler, Ramshaw, Rodman (Allan 65); Sainte-Luce, Rankine.