ALTHOUGH we didn't finish the season as we would have liked, it's been a very good season for the club.

There has been an im-provement in position and points total. The reason we are not shouting about it too much is that at one stage, that improvement looked as if it would be even better than it was.

You can probably split our season into thirds. The first third provided a really good start to the season, the second saw us maintain it but in the third it was obviously not sustained.

The injury situation started to bite in the first third of the season with the likes of David Foy and Stewart Hadley, although to be fair we managed to cover that up.

It was still there in the middle third and was considerably worse although again we covered it up, but in the final third it finally caught up with us.

Stafford finished eight points ahead of us in second place but there was only a win between the next four teams, and right to the last day of the season we could have finished third had we won at Dover, which would have shown a considerable improvement.

I am quite convinced that had we had a more even crack at it in terms of availability of players we would have run Tamworth a lot closer, and with all due respect to Stafford we would have taken runners-up spot.

However, Tamworth were by far and away the best team in the league with strength all round and a depth to their squad, and even without our problems it would have been a tall order to have knocked them off the top.

For two-thirds of the season it looked like it could be the season the club has been waiting more than 20 years for, but at least the starting point will be stronger still for next season.

There is a strong nucleus to the squad that is committed for next season, but despite that we still want to bring in a few additions to improve the dressing room and we will be endeavouring to do that.

It won't be easy next year and I anticipate that the league will be even more competitive -- if you look at the three feeder leagues, I am not saying that all the best teams are in the Dr Martens but if you look at the toughness of competition then the Dr Martens offers by far the most difficult route into the Conference.

All sorts of players have played their part this season. I can't mention everyone, but Danny McDonnell's performances in goal speak for themselves, while Jon Holloway was outstanding for the first two-thirds of the season and we probably didn't help him late on by moving him round into different positions when we needed to.

Adam Webster has had a very good season and if he can build on that for next season it could be an excellent one for him.

We added Adam Wilde during the season and towards the end the end of the campaign he started to show the form he displayed when he first came to the club. Hopefully his first full season will prove to be an exciting one.

Carl Heeley has had another steady, consistent season and up to his injury, Allan Davies had an improved season and although not many people have mentioned it, we have missed Pat Lyons since his injury.

I look forward to meeting the players tomorrow night and confidentially talking to them about what progress has been made and what has to be done. Over the summer period they will be left with a question and they have to answer it by the start of next season.

We could have got something out of the game at Dover but it wasn't to be although they are not a bad side.

Obviously the sendings-off made the headlines but before people start getting carried away, our disciplinary record this season hasn't been bad. It has been amplified by the games at Cambridge and Dover where we have had two sent off.