Andy Welsh has warned that patience is required as new-look Ossett United search for their first BetVictor North West victory of the season.
United won the FA Cup last week at Billingham Town, but have lost two and drawn one of their opening three league matches.
The Ossett squad has changed from last season, with Welsh making quite a few signings to stem the flow of the departures and the United boss is not concerned at the moment.
“We have the right blend of youth and experience and it will come together,” Welsh told Non League Yorkshire.
“They’re a great bunch of lads and they work very hard for each. There is still a few getting to know each other and it does take time.
“This time last year, we might have been top of the league and scored seven goals. We’ve lost six players from last year so we have had to be clever with the budget and get players in who we feel we can develop.
“I’m more than happy with where the squad is. I think this level of football this year will be a lot harder than the league we were in last year.
“I’ve always said that the North West sides seem to have a bit more money to spend on players and I think the pool of players they can pull from is big. They have Liverpool and Manchester and they can also pull players from Sheffield too.
“For us we want to keep a strong unit. Championships, relegations, cups they’re not won in the first month of the season. At Christmas time people had wrote us off for the play-offs.
“We were 12 points off and we managed to get into the play-offs and we won a cup. We had a great season and we want to build on that, but we have to be careful.
“We have some young lads in the team and I think the fans are privy to the fact we haven’t got the budget we had last season and the fact there’s been a lot gone off behind the scenes.
“Sometimes it might to be a season of consolidation or patience before we go again.
“But myself and (assistant manager Paul Quinn) Quinny are the type of people who want to push the club on, both on-and-off-the-field.”
Welsh has been happy with the displays so far. He previously said he was pleased with what he saw in the controversial defeat to Brighouse Town on Bank Holiday Monday – a loss he blamed on the referee after a handball in the build-up to Brighouse’s opener.
“I think we’re still a team getting used to a different style of play, different personnel,” he said.
“It may take time to get it going, but we’re only four games in. Mossley on the first day, we should have won it really. I know they had a chance late-on, but we dominated the game.
“The performance against Mossley was of the right standard.
“Dunston away, arguably could have been a draw, but the goal came from concentration levels.”