Isthmian League

Daly | “It’s a great club to be at”

And as pre-season looms closer by the day, manager Shaun Saunders has been busy building his squad for the upcoming season in the Isthmian Premier Division. With new faces through the door and a host of familiar ones staying put, we spoke with one from the latter group to get his thoughts on a cheerful campaign, and what is soon to come.

So, Joel. First things first, was it an easy decision to stay?

“I’d say so! If we didn’t get promoted this season, then it would have been a tough decision to make. I always wanted to stay, but I kept hearing people say ‘oh, you can player higher’, and that just got into my head a little bit. 

I’m very glad we’ve gone up, it means we’re in a more difficult league, more testing, but I wanted to stay anyway – it’s a great club to be at. The fans, the boys… it was a great group last year.

I know with Shaun where I stand. I know he likes me and rates me as a player so in the end it was pretty easy for me – see it out for another season and see what happens this season!

It’s very exciting going into a new season with the boys. But it’s hard to say – we’ve made some good signings, some very strong signings and I think they’ll be great additions to a strong squad that we already had.

We had a good squad last year but we’ll be even stronger this year. Everyone’s ambition is to do well, be near the top of the table. That’s coming from my perspective, I always want to be at the top of the league, and try and get promoted, push for the play-offs. I don’t want to go into a league just to survive, but it’ll be a tough league, there’s some good teams in it, and we’re going to give it a right go.

I feel confident, feel like towards the end of the season I cemented down one position rather than playing everywhere which I had been before – throughout the season I was sort of all over the place. But I think with every game I was improving last year, and I just want to carry that momentum into next season. 

I can’t wait for pre-season to get started and for it all to get going again.”

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