Matt Easton hopes that this will be the season that everybody at Spalding United begins enjoying their football again.
The boss reckons that the feel-good factor has returned to the Sir Halley Stewart Playing Field ahead of their BetVictor NPL South East Division opener at Sutton Coldfield Town on Saturday (3pm).
After narrowly avoiding relegation last season following a crippling financial situation that badly impacted Easton’s options, the Tulips begin the 2019/20 campaign with a clean slate.
Having only won six games last season en-route to finishing 18th (including just three at home), Spalding are looking more towards the top ten this season.
Easton, who has added the likes of Jamie Jackson, Lewis Brownhill, Ben Greenwood and Josh Spencer to his squad, also intends to deliver a better brand of football for the club’s long-suffering fans to enjoy.
“I want the club to get back into the habit of winning games again,” said the Tulips chief. “I’m feeling positive, we’ve had a good summer.
“We’ve got a happy camp and have a bit more pace and excitement about us going forward, which is important.
“We’re all looking forward to getting started and I think the most important thing is that we want to start enjoying playing football again. I’m excited to see what we can do.
“It’s difficult to say what our goal for the season should be exactly, but I do think that the league will be a lot more even with more of the northern sides with big budgets no longer present.
“From my point of view, I would like to see a major improvement overall. I’m not talking about finishing two or three places higher – it has to be something like ten places better.
“A lot of teams will start the season with the mentality of getting into the play-off places and we certainly have to start with that in mind.
“If you don’t think positive at the start of the season, what is the point?
“Everyone here wants to have a successful season and we feel that we now have a squad capable of doing more than just surviving.
“The last three or four months of last season were pretty grim and I don’t think anyone at the club; be it me, the squad or the fans, were overly happy.
“We want to win more games at home and play a much better brand of football. Let’s see where that takes us.”
Easton’s Tulips, who lost their final pre-season game of the summer 2-1 at home to Corby Town despite Jackson giving them a 1-0 half-time lead, start with a tough trip to Sutton Coldfield.
They finished fifth in the Evo-Stik League Division One Central Division that was won by Peterborough Sports last season and will likely be gunning for promotion.
Spalding then host a Loughborough Dynamo side who comfortably won 2-0 at the Sir Halley at the back end of last season on Tuesday (7.45pm), with Easton admitting it’ll be a tricky start for his side.
He added: “We’re certainly ready. Sutton Coldfield isn’t the easiest first fixture and them playing on a 3G pitch gives them an obvious advantage.
“But we’ll got there and look to play the ball around, we certainly won’t just go back to front.
“It’ll be a very good test for us, as will Tuesday. Loughborough played us off the park at the end of last season, so we know what to expect.
“We’ve got a few missing, but we’ll look to make a good start.
“I’m not going to worry about those we’re missing, we’ll have a full squad soon so it’s just a case of seeing what we can do in the first few weeks.”
Spalding are definitely without Archie Moyses, Neal Spafford, Scott Floyd and Ben Greenwood for both games, while George Zuerner and Jackson are doubts for Saturday but should be fit enough to be involved.
For any Tulips fans looking to travel to the opener on Saturday, Sutton Coldfield’s Central Ground is on Coles Lane (B72 1NL).
