MANAGER Wayne Oliver has challenged his players to prove they have what it takes to remain at Droitwich Spa beyond this season.
With Spa’s survival in Midland Football League Division Two all but secured, preparations have now started at the King George Playing Fields ahead of the 2015/16 campaign.
Oliver told The Standard they were looking to bolster their squad with the addition of a few new faces in the summer.
But with still seven league games left, Spa’s joint boss said there was an opportunity for his current crop of players to stake their claim.
“We have just sat the lads down and said ‘we are in preparation now for next season’,” he said.
“We are looking to use a similar squad with the addition of two or three and we will use the remaining games to look at the players that we have got and give them the opportunity to say to us ‘I want to be part of the ride’ or ‘I would like to get off now’.
“We have operated with a similar squad of 16 for the last month or so and we would like to continue with them.
“But we have put them under no illusions. It will be harder than last season. Droitwich is not going to become a meal ticket for players who think they just want a game in the Midland Com because they can’t get one anywhere else.
“It is going to be hard pre-season and it will be a hard campaign next year and we have told that to the players.”
Oliver said he and his fellow manager Mark Owen were confident Spa would avoid the drop as they believed either Glades Sporting or Kenilworth Town would go down along with rock bottom Coton Green.
But he insisted his players had no excuses to take their foot off the gas and urged them to claim all three points when they travel to Sutton United tomorrow (Saturday).
“In our current way we are thinking at the moment we are 99.9 per cent certain we are safe,” Oliver added.
“But mathematically we can still go through the trap door, so we have got two big games ahead of us and if we get something out of both of those we should be safe.”
