Garforth manager Graham Nicholas and his assistant Neil Jones (right) want to win the Toolstation NCEL Premier Division
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Garforth Town manager Graham Nicholas hopes his new-look side will erase a bad memory from last year’s Toolstation NCEL Premier Division opening day defeat to Thackley tomorrow.
Garforth were defeated by a last minute goal to Thackley, who had played the final stages with nine men after two red cards.
Now Nicholas wants to rest demons from that defeat and lead Garforth to their first opening day win in seven years with victory over Parkgate at Wheatley Park tomorrow.
“Last season especially, I was so disappointed as Thackley were down to nine men,” he told Non League Yorkshire.
“It was like ‘come on lets win it’ and we threw everything at them, but got caught with the sucker-punch on the counter-attack.
“That hurt. It was my first ever game as a semi-professional manager and you remember everything about it.
“We have got to learn from the mistakes we made against Farsley in terms of conceding goals.
“We have got to hit the ground running. It is not about pre-season friendlies anymore.
“We didn’t treat the Farsley game as one. We had to get a win or a good performance to make sure we go into Saturday flying and we did.”
Nicholas has previously spoken about his desire to mount a bid to win the Premier Division.
That target remains in place and he added: “We’re ready.
“The first three games of pre-season were where we had to look at trialists and me personally, anyone who emails the club early doors and wants to come, I’ll always give them a chance.
“I was frustrated that we didn’t have a strong squad out against Frickley and other games like Leeds United as we missed key players.
“But, against Farsley we had them all there. We have a great bunch of lads and standing on the sidelines in the game against Farsley, I said to Neil (Jones), ‘I’m so proud to be the manager of this club’.
“The aim is still to win the league. There’s no point being in it if you don’t believe you can’t win it.
“I call them rough diamonds, but I have in my opinion the best squad in the league.”
The referee of Garforth’s home game with Parkgate is Aaron Bannister.