Chris Hilton is happy with his current Stocksbridge Park Steels squad
Chris Hilton believes Stocksbridge Park Steels are heading in the right direction after a difficult season at Bracken Moor.
Hilton was tasked with rebuilding the Steels last summer after their relegation to the Evo Stik Division One South, but by own admission it has been difficult to put a squad together.
In the midst of the construction, Stocksbridge flirted with relegation danger and only secured their survival on Wednesday night.
A lot of the players that appeared in the early games under Hilton have since left and it wasn’t until recently that the Steels had a stable team.
The Steels boss is really pleased with his crop and wants to carry on working with them.
“The side has changed massively from the start of the season,” Hilton told Non League Yorkshire.
“Brad Grayson coming in made a difference to us because he gave us some pace.
“Paul Haigh is someone I wanted at the start of the season, but he wanted to stay at Shaw Lane because he’s a local lad to there.
“He’s made a difference, while Harrison Biggins has matured because it is his first season in men’s football.
“Brandon Cardwell has made a difference as has Liam McFadyen at centre-half.
“We’ve been formulating for next season for the last month even though we have been trying to get safe.
“We know that this season has been difficult because we haven’t been able to work with the lads that we want to work with.
“We managed to get a group of players together and to be fair they have got better as the season has gone on.
“What we have got now, a good 95% will be here next season and in pre-season I’m hoping to bring three or four new players in.
“I’m looking forward to working with a squad that I’m going into a season with. That’s when people can judge me and say ‘he has had his time to work on them, lets see what they are like’.”
Former Worsbrough Bridge boss Hilton does admit that this season has been stressful.
Because of some of Stocksbridge’s bigger spending neighbours, player recruitment has been hard.
Hilton also agrees that the Steels should have never got to the point of needing points to survive in the final few games.
Hilton added: “It has taken its toll.
“I have a young family and some people think it is matter of just turning for training and picking a team.
“You can a word with my wife and she’ll tell you how much time I spend on the phone talking to the players.
“I must have tried to sign 30 players and failed because of people offering more money.
“The remit this season was to put foundations now and don’t get relegated.
“We have done that, but do I think we should have picked more points up? Yeah I do.
“I feel we should be three or four places higher up the league, but no higher because we’re not good enough at this moment in time.
“We have managed to get safe with five games to go, but it has definitely been too close for comfort.
“We should have been out of sight four or five games ago.”
Stocksbridge are away at Coalville Town tomorrow.