After fine start

WHAT are next season’s targets? Is promotion on the cards? I’M excited. There are some good players coming in.

Make no mistake, John and Jimmy have been fully active. We could probably put a team out now that we think is going to be competitive.

To be honest nothing would surprise me. I wouldn’t predict that (automatic promotion) but I’m not going into the season worried or nervous.

I’m confident that we will do okay.

I wouldn’t go as far to say we are going to win the league.

I definitely don’t think we will go out of the league let’s put it that way.

If someone wants to name the most likely team to go out of the league again then I think they would be making a mistake name us.

I don’t think there’s much chance of that to be honest.

My prediction is we won’t be going out of the league but we are going to have a good team and whatever happens, happens.

If we carry on getting refereeing decisions like we did against Wimbledon then you don’t know where you’ll be. You can’t do anything about them.

We are a really good little club and there will be days when things go for us and against us.

It’s not a one-season game that I’m playing, it’s a ten-year game. It will balance out over the long term.

It certainly didn’t balance itself out last season. I still don’t understand how we didn’t go up. It must’ve just been destined.

But the lads were great and tried hard. We had a great team and we will have a great team this year.

I’m excited with the work John and Jimmy are doing and the shape of the team they’re putting together. WHAT are your longterm targets for the club? WE need to get this club so it has facilities so people can come, be safe in a pleasant enough football environment.

They can bring their families to parts of the ground and those who want to have a big singsong can have their part and experience.

It needs to be a day where people want to come and can be affordable. You don’t want to have to take a mortgage out to watch a game of football.

I don’t believe in ripping customers off or milking them. It’s not something I dream of. I want to give better value for money.

In giving value for money there is a commer- cial aspect and the club has to survive. One has to match the other and whatever we don’t take commercially we can’t spend on players.

I’m not saying £15 or £20 is the right price. But when everything starts working properly and we get better revenues from other streams like sponsorship and advertisers, I think we will be surprised at what potential we’ve got.

If you look at what John and Jimmy did last year with their budget, give them 50 per cent more and ask them if they would’ve gone up or not? WHAT measures have been taken to ensure longer-term squad stability? AS John has said in the past there has been no light at the end of the tunnel at the end of every season. It’s been a start again.

This year there is a light and next year we will probably have over half the squad contracted at the end of the season.

You are looking at improving year on year and not starting your squad all over again.

At Stanley, one minute you could be going up and the next minute you could be going down because all the squad has left at the end of every season and everyone has been free to go.

There will always be some of that but it’s about having a core group each year.

We got four good signings last year in Matty Pearson and Billy Kee and Seamus Conneely and Sean McConville and they effectively put themselves online for Accrington for this year. They have bought into what we are trying to do.

The new contracts we have been announcing are two years or options for two years so at the end of this season we are not starting again.

ATHLETICS PHIL SUMNER

HYNDBURN AC travelled to Lancaster for their fourth Mid Lancs athletics meeting of the season, and on a day dominated by the blustery high winds the club’s javelin throwers still managed to beat the conditions.

All throwers gained at least a top four place. Senior men took first, second and fourth, senior women first, under 15 girls second and under 15 boys second.

Performance of the day was from under 15s boy Sam Nicolson who moved up an age group to compete in the under 17s men’s triple jump as this event is not covered by

RUNNING PAUL CALVERLEY

ACCRINGTON Road Runners & Blackburn Road Runners were among the clubs competing at the Bradford Millennium Way Relay recently.

Established in 2004, this is an off-road relay of five legs, with two runners per leg, covering a total distance of 47 undulating miles, in a circular route around the West Yorkshire countryside.

There were 45 teams involved, with Accrington fielding