Seb Hayes feels that his Holbeach United side came up about 20 goals short of winning the ChromaSport UCL Premier Division this season.
The Tigers, who lifted the Lincs FA Senior Trophy last Wednesday night (see page 37), will finish either fourth or fifth after concluding their campaign with a 1-0 defeat at Kirby Muxloe on Saturday.
Hayes saluted his defence as “the best in the league” as they only shipped a league-best 37 goals over the 42-game season – but admits that Holbeach’s haul of 97 goals wasn’t enough to see them become genuine title contenders.
Despite that, he’s happy with what he calls “a brilliant season” that saw the Tigers achieve their targets laid out last summer.
Hayes said: “I think it should definitely go down as a brilliant season. If you take away all of the talk of the title, we actually delivered what we set out to – a top five finish and a trophy.
“Do I think we could have won the title? You have to look at the fact we did the double over the champions (Yaxley) and also third-placed Newport Pagnell. But I don’t think we scored enough goals to win the league.
“All of the sides at the top had a few players in the top scorer table in the league, while we had just one.
“That’s no slight against Lewis Leckie and Will Bird, who had great first seasons at this level. You can’t expect players at this level to be brilliant every week. But, unfortunately, they both had droughts at the same time.
“We also didn’t score enough goals from midfield, but we did have the best defence in the league. If we’d managed to find 20 more goals throughout the league season, I think we would have won the title. That’s not sour grapes, either, as I’m very pleased for Yaxley.
“Winning the Lincs FA Senior Trophy was a great way to end a season that we can take many positives from.”
Having achieved this year’s targets, Hayes insists that he wants to be in the title mix next time around. With Yaxley and Wisbech Town both being promoted, the Tigers chief feels it’ll be very open.
Hayes is confident of keeping the vast majority of his squad, while also wanting to add quality to an already talented team.
“I want to win the title next season,” insisted the ex-Huntington Town and Peterborough Northern Star boss. “I think I’ve earned the right to believe in myself as a boss at this level now.
“I’ve won four cups, had two top five finishes and two top seven finishes. Now the aim is to take the next step and win the league.
“I’ve had good conversations with about 80 per cent of the squad and I’m confident we’ll retain all of the players that we want to keep.
“Maybe we need three or four new faces, but I’ll only be adding players that I think will improve on what we’ve already got. The squad is healthy, so there’s no point just adding players for the sake of it.
“The league is losing two of its best sides in Yaxley and Wisbech Town next season, so it’d be foolish of me to say that it’s not going to be an open title race again.”
Holbeach’s end of season presentation night is on Saturday, May 19. Hayes expects to be able to announce which members of his squad are staying afterwards.
Holbeach United 2017/18 key statistics
Overall record: Played 57; won 38; drew 5; lost 14; for 131; against 53.
Biggest win: 10-0 v Northampton Sileby Rangers (home, April 11).
Heaviest defeat: 5-0 v Walsall Wood (FA Vase, November 11).
Best attendance: 333 (v Sleaford Town on July 29).
Top scorers (as per the FA full-time website): Lewis Leckie (28); Will Bird (18); Mitch Griffiths (15); Charley Sanders (11); George Zuerner (11).
Most appearances (as per the FA full-time website): Ricky Drury (51); Will Bird (49); George Zuerner (49); Nick Jackson (47); Lewis Leckie (47).
