Season Preview
Toolstation NCEL Division One
FC Humber United
A new name, a new team, a new home – everything is brand new about FC Humber United. The biggest question is whether they can turn the corner after two very poor campaigns as East Hull.
Manager
Mark Maspero
The former Sherburn White Rose manager took the job on in December last year and managed to rustle up a team at short notice for the Boxing Day game at Winterton Rangers. That saved the club and he starts the season with a stable squad.
Opening Five Fixtures
Dronfield Town (h), Worsbrough Bridge (a), Hall Road Rangers – League Cup (h), Glasshoughton Welfare (h), Ollerton Town (a).
Notable Movement
The Humber line-up is a brand new team. Familiar faces include ex-Selby Town striker Louis Blackwell and ex-Armthorpe Welfare goalkeeper Aidan Smith.
One to Watch
Szymon Czubik
Szymon Czubik has been bigged up as the ‘one to watch’ by Humber. The attacker was most recently on the books of Stockport County.
Interview
Mark Maspero is hopeful FC Humber United can have a positive start to the new season.
The rebranded club face Dronfield Town tomorrow before taking on Worsbrough Bridge, Glasshoughton Welfare and Ollerton Town.
A ‘replay’ with landlords Selby Town – who beat them 7-3 in pre-season – is after Ollerton and that’s followed by clashes with title favourites North Ferriby and Hallam.
Maspero hopes the opening four games will brighten the outlook before meeting the big guns.
“(The fixture list) breaks us in gently,” Maspero told Non League Yorkshire.
“We see it as a good start and we think we can compete with those teams.
“If we have a good start then maybe that will put us in good stead to face Selby, Ferriby and Hallam.
“Those games are freebies.
“The Selby game will be a marker for how far we have come (since the first game of pre-season).
“I don’t think it can get worse. We started poorly and a few lads froze and then it was impossible to recover.
“The lads know the standard now and they know what they will be facing.”
Under the guise of East Hull, the last two curtailed seasons have been nothing short of a disaster.
Hull had one point prior to the curtailment of the 2019/20 campaign.
Former Bradford City midfielder Nathan Doyle won two of his opening three games at the start of last season, but the wheels fell off when he and his players left.
Now there’s a completely new team under the name of Humber and asked what the expectations are, Maspero said: “To compete.
“Mid-table, competing.
“We don’t expect to be challenging for anything, but equally we don’t expect to be scrapping (at the bottom of the league).
“Staying in the league is an absolute must, but we’re aiming mid-table.
“We think we have a competitive side.
“We just want that one stable year in the league and then we’ll look to push forward.”
Prediction
Relegation Candidates
Maspero and Humber won’t like the prediction, but it is down to them to prove Non League Yorkshire wrong and use it as an incentive in the changing room.
Results in pre-season have been tough with a new team, full of the youngest players in the league.
It could to take time to get going in a league that can be brutal at times.