What does the future hold?

Well, quite simply, we did it! We held on to our league status by beating Boston 3-1 at the Racecourse last Saturday. Was it a great achievement? No. We can't be proud of the fact that we were staring relegation in the face. The win against Boston was a good one, don't think I'm taking anything away from the players, the second half performance showed guts and passion. What worries me is the fact that it takes a goal against us to get us going. This shouldn't happen.

Brian Carey has been officially announced as our permanent manager today on a 2 year deal. Is this a good call by Nev and Geoff? Who knows. I'd like to think so though. Brian has make a few changes around the club, bringing in Andy O'Boyle for example, which nobody can argue with. What gets me is the fact that we didn't have a dedicated fitness guy/sports scientist before.

The signings of Williams and Proctor on loan were inspired signings for Brian, and they certainly did the job for us late in the season. Both of whom have expressed on numerous occasions that they wish to join us permanently, and I have to say, Id be straight in there with a contract for the pair of them. Williams is fantastic at commanding his box, and Proctor looks creative both on the wing and up front.

Brian has released Mike Ingham and Lee Roche, this says to me that he must be totally confident of securing Williams signature for next season. I'll be honest, I'll be sad to see Mike go, but can understand why Brian has let him go. Roche I'm not surprised with at all, he hasn't featured for the last 6 games, and has been plagued with injuries. One thing that does worry me, is that he's offered contracts to everyone else...the team that nearly got us relegated from the football league. Hopefully Brian has made a good judgement call here, and hasn't screwed up.

It's going to be interesting to see how many accept their contracts, and how many refuse and put in transfer requests, I'm thinking that maybe Danny Williams and Chris Llewellyn will be angling for a move, I do really hope I'm wrong however!

Let's hope that we are never in this situation again, and that we're challenging for a play-off place at the very least next season. It's a big ask, but it's what we HAVE to aim for.

Enjoy the closed season!
Rich