West Yorkshire League Premier Division
Carlton Athletic manager Mark Pitts expects the field of contenders for the West Yorkshire League Premier Division title to be wide.
The ex-Goole joint boss and Nostell Miners Welfare first team coach returned to Carlton earlier this year and he is seeking to bring back the glory days and reclaim the crown from reigning champions Horsforth St Margarets.
“The aim is to compete for the club and any cup competitions we are in.” Pitts told Non League Yorkshire.
“That’s always the aim.
“We’ll be having a go on all fronts.
“It will be competitive.
“There’s Beeston, Horsforth.
“Huddersfield Amateur are a good side and they had a good strong finish.
“Hall Green are a good side on their day
“There’s also some good sides coming up.
“Ash Berry’s Shelley will be strong, he always gets a good side together.
“Silsden (Reserves) have come up and they are a good young side and I have seen them play a couple of times.
“The sides that have come up…I think they will be a handful.
“There’s also always a dark horse who does well.
“But I have got to focus on what we’re doing and I’m confident we can be up there at the end of the season.”
Pitts led Carlton to unprecedented success during his first spell as he led them to three consecutive league titles between 2017 and 2019.
Overall he won ten trophies in five years.
One of the key players during the glory years, Joe O’Neill, has been persuaded to return.
O’Neill and another ex-Nostell player have also signed.
“(Recruitment) has gone well,” Pitts.
“I haven’t needed to add many because I’ve got a quite committed group so there’s two-or-three new faces.
“We have brought Sam Ford in. He was at Nostell last year and I managed to get him to come over.
“Joe O’Neill who was at Nostell last year, we managed to get him to sign over a week ago.
“We had a lot of chats with him and he decided he was going to commit to us.”
The campaign begins on the 14th August.
The league are yet to release the fixtures so Carlton do not know who they will face.
In mean-time Pitts is enjoying pre-season.
“It has been really good and the lads have been really good,” he said.
“It is a totally set of players (to my first reign).
“I think there is three-or-four from the team that I had there before.
“Pre-season has gone really well.
“We have a great reserve side who have some cracking young players who are getting chances with the first team.
“They have come in pre-season and not looked out of place.
“We have had two tough friendlies but I wanted to start with two tough ones against NCEL sides.
“I don’t see the point in playing lower opposition and winning by a ridiculous score-lines and not getting much out of it.
“We played Hemsworth and they gave us a 6-1 towelling! But after 60 minutes it was only 3-1 and fitness took over.
“Then Worsbrough last week it was 1-0 after 70 minutes and they came on strong in the last 20 minutes.
“But you expect sides like that to be fitter.”