BEATTIE HAS BIG PLANS AT STANLEY

ACCRINGTON boss James Beattie is planning a trip to the capital to convince chairman Peter Marsden to part with some cash for next season.

Stanley ended their season on a high after they claimed a 3-2 win over AFC Wimbledon to secure a 15th-placed finish in League Two.

That was some achievement for a Stanley side who didn’t win a match until the end of October.

But Beattie is refusing to stand still and is expecting to meet with Marsden in London soon to discuss their transfer plans.

“I want the club to progress. I want us to be better and improve on this year. I want the club to improve on and off the pitch,” said Beattie.

“I think first and foremost I need to sit down with the chairman and get the numbers that I’m allowed to play with.

“He wanted to do that after the final game but that was tricky with the presentations and the chairman entertaining people.

“So we’re going to take a bit of time out and meet in London in the next couple of weeks.

“I can then get my budget numbers and we can start planning and putting things into concrete from there.

“He was very positive when I spoke to him before the last game about a lot of things that we’ve discussed over the past few months.”

Several players are out of contract at the club this summer and their futures are still being discussed but Beattie, who made good use of the loan window this term, is reluctant to set definite transfer targets.

“It depends on which players we can keep, whether bigger teams come enquiring and depends on how much money we’ve got to spend this summer,” he added.

“It’s widely known that we’ve got the worst budget in the Football League but if we can create something similar to what we’ve had this year and maybe get a cash injection from somewhere then who knows what’s possible.”