LEDBURY FC manager Ian Merrick says that 'promotion has always been his goal' with the side and they will go into their 2025/26 campaign with 'every intention' of achieving that.
Currently Ledbury sit tenth in the Herefordshire ZZOOMM Premier League, with nine games left of their campaign. Merrick left the club at the end of last season, but re-joined the side in early November following the decision for Matt Tunley to step away from the role.
"When I first came back we got off to quite a good start. We probably got a bit ahead of ourselves, I got a bit ahead of myself," said Merrick.
"We’ve got nine games left. Five at home and four away. It would be nice if we could go unbeaten at home for the rest of the season because we had a great home record in my previous tenure.
"We have got a couple of tough games – Kington and Alcester would be the really tough ones where we would have to play really well to get something but if we could win maybe half of the nine games then that would be a good return."
Having turned down a job in a higher division over the summer, Merrick currently intends to stay with the club for their 2025/26 campaign.
He is aiming to propel the side to challenge for promotion to step six football in his first full league campaign back as the boss.
"Every side at the start of the season has that ambition to win the league," he said.
"Within a couple of months you can soon find out how realistic that is. When I took over at Ledbury three years ago the ambition of me and the chairman was always to get Ledbury into the Hellenic pyramid.
"Every year with the Hereford league that gets tougher and tougher. It is not the Herefordshire football league anymore, you get teams coming in to bounce out again. We are going to have to recruit – that is obvious to me and my coaching team.
"That is not to knock the players that we have got there, we have got some brilliant footballers there but to go to that next league we are going to need a little sprinkling of magic to make sure that we have got 14, 16 lads all pulling in the same direction - it takes a squad to win a league."
Having previously been a ground in the West Midlands League, New Street should pass ground grading if a promotion looks likely.
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"Promotion has always been my goal," he said.
"The first season I was there Hartpury came into the league and look where they are now – in the quarter final of the FA Vase and about to win at step five. We finished second behind them – it was no mean feat, something to be proud of.
"We will go into next season with absolutely every intention of trying to win that league, trying to get Ledbury promoted."
Merrick also hopes to maintain Ledbury's previous work in bringing through top talent from their youth ranks.
"For any club that isn’t pumping money in, youth has to be a goal. Ledbury has always produced good players," he said.
"People like Joe Bullock who is absolutely tearing it up at Malvern now. We have to produce our own players because we don’t have a wealthy benefactor that is pumping loads of money in.
"It has to be sustainable. So bringing through young players who then know they are going to get the opportunities, know that they are going to have the pathway to play in the first team of a good club."
With hopes of a move to an all-weather pitch that can compete with the likes of Malvern Town and Hereford Pegasus, the future is looking bright for the side.
"It is all kind of synergy because it brings it all together. You would probably naturally find that you are playing higher up the football pyramid because you have the facilities to attract the players, to then get you the results that could get you higher up," he said.
"I think long-term Ledbury would like to be a Hellenic One team and pushing the under-18s through, getting them playing a good level of football. That would kind of be the end goal for us really."
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