THE BAR has been raised at Droitwich Spa and joint-manager Wayne Oliver said he expects his players to keep their standards high this season.
Spa kicked off their Midland Football League Division One campaign in superb style last Saturday as they trounced Hampton 6-1 at the King George Playing Fields.
Although Oliver said the result was a confidence boost, he insisted it was important his players did not get ‘over-excited’ by it and instead focused on improving their performance.
“It’s important that we keep our feet on the floor,” he said. “We could be singing from the roof tops, but there is no point at this stage in the season.
“The lads have come through a hard pre-season. We have trained as a semi-pro club, but they have took to it really well and we are expecting higher standards across everything.
“We don’t want to go back to what we were, so we just want to keep raising the bar.”
Fairfield Villa’s general manager Paul Oakes has labelled Droitwich as the ‘dark horses’ this season having retained every member of last season’s squad, including promising Worcester City teenagers James Lemon and Maccauley Finch.
Spa have also secured the services of City midfielders Jasper Alford and Haydn Morris who are part of the National League North outfit’s academy which Mark Owen runs along side his
managerial duties at Droitwich.
However, Oliver, whose side will host front-runners Alvis Sporting today (Saturday), said his 20-strong squad will have a plenty to prove this season as they target a top five finish.
“We have retained all our players this year, which is a boost and with such a big squad I think it is a big season for a lot of our lads in terms of their development and ambition,” Oliver added.
“There are sides in the division that do have budgets and can pay players, so they’re going to come to the top eventually.
“We have set our own targets, but they are nothing more than a top five finish and if we can get there that would be a massive step forward for us.”
