AFC Emley manager Darren Hepworth (centre) his squad are hungry to succeed
AFC Emley manager Darren Hepworth says his side are fully focussed on achieving honours this season.
Hepworth is hoping to guide Emley into the Toolstation NCEL Premier Division at the fourth attempt and he claims his squad are geared up for glory.
“No, we’re not curbing expectations and I’ll tell you why,” he said.
“We have players who are very level-headed and are very hungry to succeed, but are keen to learn.
“That’s the most impressive thing about this group of players.
“They are learning, they take on board instruction brilliantly and they all want to win.
“No complacency will happen here and no-one is getting carried away.
“We know we will be judged in May, not August.
“The great thing is that we are putting points on the board. The FA Cup is great and it is a marquee competition to be involved and for the club financially it is huge.
“We go to Northwich in the next round and we’ll see what we can do, but our bread and butter is the league and that’s the priority 100% this season.”
Emley have made a fantastic start. They won 8-1 at Grimsby Borough on the first day and then beat much-fancied Bottesford Town before the FA Cup triumph last season.
Hepworth said: “There’s no easy game in this league and with all respect to Grimsby, people were saying Grimsby were poor.
“Actually, no they weren’t. We made them poor and our lads deserve a lot of credit for the way they are going about their game.
“They are making teams look poor because of the quality we have.
“I don’t want to take anything away from the lads and if they continue to learn like they are doing, they will be a real force to be reckoned with this year.”
Emley head to Clipstone, who have exactly the same record to Emley, tomorrow and Hepworth added: “Its lined up for a great fixture
“We go to Clipstone and I know that Brett (Marshall) has a new management team in situ and they’ve been going great.
“It will be a difficult test.”