Darren Holmes says Glasshoughton Welfare are looking up the table after overcoming their poor start to the Toolstation NCEL Division One season.
Holmes and Lee Vigars had anticipated a tough opening few weeks after a car crash pre-season results-wise, caused by having to totally rebuild their squad.
Welfare lost all five of their first five league fixtures, but now after winning three out of their four league matches – outstanding victories against in-form sides in North Ferriby, Worsbrough Bridge and Campion – Holmes believes the outlook is brighter.
Glasshoughton host Armthorpe Welfare on Saturday.
“The players have set the bar, set the standard after Tuesday.” Holmes told Non League Yorkshire.
“I spoke to you in pre-season and we knew exactly where we were. We were chasing a few players, we had players on holiday, we had a few players injured and we had a few players who had chosen had gone to teams higher in pre-season and we were waiting for them to filter down.
“We knew where the problems were and we knew we were four or five weeks behind everyone else. It was a shocking a pre-season, but it wasn’t a surprise.
“We didn’t set off in pre-season thinking ‘this is going to be our season’, it was never going to be that. We were telling everyone to give us four or five weeks to sort it out and we have done.
“We haven’t done a pre-season as a group, only a handful (of players) were with us in pre-season. We did our pre-season at the start of the season. You could say our pre-season is done and we should look to go kick on from now.
“If you look at our results they have all been reasonably close. We have had some cracking performances, but in a lot of games we haven’t got the rub of the green. Against Campion everything went for us.
“We have a run of home games now and we have to string some wins together. We’ve played 15 games and only four at home and that has shown.”
Only four or five of the current Glasshoughton team were with the club last season – players such as stalwart captain Adam Walsh, Craig Tonkinson, Nathan Perks and Isaac Collier.
“We haven’t got the money that some teams have and our better players tend to get offered better money by other clubs,” he said.
“We’ve had to really dig deep to build a squad and we have had to look into the West Yorkshire League.
“Like we said at the beginning of the season, Glasshoughton have to look for those hidden gems. We have a good group now.
“When we got to play-offs we had 15 points from 15 games and we kicked on. I would also say that we have almost as strong a squad as we had then.”