LEDBURY boss Ian Merrick he wants his side 'to finish the season as strong as possible', as they target promotion from the ZZOOMM Herefordshire Premier Division in their 2025/26 campaign.
Currently sat 12th in the division, the side are safe from the drop but promotion is also a mathematical impossibility.
However, Merrick remains intent on his goal of securing promotion next season.
"When I first took over I spoke about building momentum. At the turn of the year there was 13 games left and I said I wanted to win 10 of them," he said.
"That hasn’t quite panned out, I have spoke before about players not showing the commitment. But for me next season started the moment I took over again (in November 2024).
"I was looking at young players who could make the step up for next season, players this year who are committed. Next year started when I took over again."
Merrick is keen to ensure his side finish strong to show that Ledbury are a "force to be reckoned with."
"Absolutely finishing the season strong builds confidence," he said. "It makes other teams think Ledbury are a force to be reckoned with. Obviously it is not trophies or anything like that but people do look at you and think ‘they have turned a corner there’.
"That inspires confidence in everybody as well, I wanted to end the season as strong as possible and that still applies now. We go into every single game trying to win it, no matter what team we have out. We haven’t had great numbers the last couple of weeks and we have managed to keep results up.
"No matter who we are playing, we will be looking to win."
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Next time out awaits a tough fixture away at first-placed, undefeated Alcester.
"We will treat it like a cup final to be honest," said the manager. "In my previous tenure in charge, we always felt that teams would raise their game against us and when we played teams in the lower half it felt like there was times where teams were changing their games against us.
"You’d look at their form over the course of the previous six or seven months and think how is this possible almost. We will treat it like a cup final and make sure everybody is really, really up for it.
"It will be a bit of a free hit for us. In the last couple of games we have beat Kempsey who were second, we have got two really positive results in the last week and a bit against teams in the top half."
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