St Albans City manager Ian Allinson has identified more experience as the cornerstone for an even better campaign next season.
The 2-1 defeat at Bath City confirmed that the Saints would just miss out on the Vanarama National League South play-offs and Allinson was in reflective mood at Twerton Park.
And he pointed at the age of his young squad as perhaps a reason for City not getting over the line despite classing the season overall as an “overachievement”.
He said: “Everything is an improvement on last year, the points total, the goals scored, the position, but we are a young side and we’ve got a hell of a lot to learn and bringing in some experience to go with that is going to be the next test.
“We need to see where we’re going to be in terms of the budget, in terms of what players are available, what players we want to keep and what players don’t want to stay.
“We’ve probably got three or four who’ve already got deals elsewhere but we’ll sit down with the players over the next week or two and then I think we all need to have a bit of a break.
“It seems to have been a long hard season.
“There are lots of things to look at but perhaps in the end we haven’t been good enough, which would be sad to say as I think some of our performances this year have been outstanding.
“But we haven’t been consistent enough but that could be because we’re quite a young side and we haven’t got enough experienced players throughout the team. Just having David Noble and Ben Herd is not enough.”
That extra experience could be needed as well-supported and financially well-backed clubs come into the league.
“I’ve already had that in my mind,” said Allinson. “There’s a massive concern about some of the teams that are coming in.
“I look at it and although we do need to improve, it’s going to be a tough year.
“Billericay are coming up, we don’t know what’s happening with Hereford but Torquay and Woking are coming down and you could quite easily end up with Dulwich Hamlet or Slough.
“So it’s going to be a tough league, we know that, and we need to recruit properly in the summer and we need to make sure we have the right balance as well.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here