Toolstation NCEL Division One
Dave Ricardo hopes Hall Road Rangers are beginning to climb the table after an upturn in form.
The goal-less draw with Harrogate Railway on Saturday was their third league game in a row without defeat.
Hall Road had been aiming to mount a push for the play-offs back.
Those dreams look a distant one but Ricardo and fellow joint manager Leon Sewell aren’t giving up.
“That’s four unbeaten including the Grimsby (League Cup) game and if we had done that from the start of the season we’d be top four,” Ricardo told Non League Yorkshire.
“But we haven’t so as all managers know, sometimes you have to reassess your aims two or three times a season.
“At the start of the season everyone wants to be in the play-offs and to win the league, you can’t attract players by saying ‘ah we’ll be comfortably 12th’.
“If you’re anybody like myself you want to win every game you play.
“Now if we had won (on Saturday) and won our game-in-hand, we would have been seven points off fifth, the play-off places.
“For me that’s still the aim.
“We’re still looking to get one-or-two in but the lads who have come in and the lads we have kept have been outstanding recently.
“I can’t sing their praises enough.”
The watershed moment in Hall Road’s season was September’s 5-0 defeat at Nostell Miners Welfare – ironically Ricardo’s first game back.
“Some of the things I witnessed in that Nostell game I never want to witness again,” he said.
“It was horrendous and the lads knew that.
“The lads we have brought in have quality and most importantly a good attitude which you saw (on Saturday).
“No-one backed off, everybody was on the front-foot.”
Popular figure Ricardo returned to the dugout two years after his exit from Barton Town and four since he was sacked by Hall Road just months after leading them to their famous 2017 Division One triumph.
Roles are at a premium in East Yorkshire due to few Non League clubs and Ricardo wasn’t sure if an opportunity would open until his call with Sewell.
“I was always hopeful I’d get back in,” he said.
“There was whispers at one club (in the last couple of years) but nothing other than that.
“If I was in the Sheffield, Manchester, Nottingham, Leeds area, there’s plenty of teams and jobs going around.
“But in the East Riding there’s only a few (Non League) clubs like North Ferriby and Brid where both managers are doing great jobs.
“I have been at Selby so that’s not going to happen again.
“Barton, what happened happened so you are kind of running out of options.
“(Hall Road chairman) Darren (Sunley) made his decision (to sack me in 2017) but football is a small family.
“You cross paths many times so I don’t fall out with people long-term so I’m not too proud to start again and help Leon and the team.
“I’m back mostly for Leon because he’s a good lad.
“He’s been in the game a long time and sometimes he’s had small purse strings if not non-existent.
“I thought he deserved some help and some assistance.
“This is Leon’s baby and Leon’s side but I thought he deserved some help.”