ALVECHURCH boss Ian Long admitted his side had finished the season on a downward curve from the moment rivals Hereford wrapped up the Midland League title.

Church pulled down the curtain on this season with a 2-1 defeat by Sporting Khalsa in the J W Hunt Cup semi-final and Long confirmed: " We didn't play well enough to win the game.

" Ever since we reached the point where we couldn't win the league title we haven't really played to our full potential. I think there's been a bit of a hangover from that and I accept some of the performances haven't been brilliant.

"We didn't achieve our goal which was promotion and I can look back to the fact we missed 10 penalties throughout the season.

"I can point to the games against Hereford, Quorn and Boldmere in particular where missed penalties cost us points. Had we done better from the spot, then we could have been looking at different champions!

Long makes no secret of the fact that he and assistant Richard Colwell were approached by Redditch United but has underlined his commitment to Alvechurch.

He stressed: "If truth be told, we were always leaning towards staying with Alvechurch anyway, but in the end it didn't matter because we weren't offered the job and I'm really relieved I didn't have to make a decision."

Long is already building the foundations for next season's squad and confirmed a number of key players including Jordan Nadat, Ryan Winwood, Paul Evans, James Spray, David Bellis, Andy Parsons, Jack Cresswell and Mark Smith would be returning next term.

He also reported that experienced central defender Sam Smith, who has previously played for Stafford Rangers and Rushall Olympic would be attending pre-season training.

Although looking to keep the majority of last season's squad. Long revealed he would be losing striker Karl Edwards and defender Richard Huckfield.

Long said: "I've had Karl Edwards with me for the past four seasons but he's missed out on a number of games in preference to Jordan Nadat and Nathan Waite.

"Karl's 33 years old now and wants regular football, while Richard hasn't featured too much during the second half of the season due to work commitments and it's probably best for both that they move on."

Long has already lined up a number of attractive pre-season friendly fixtures including home games against Evo-Stik Northern Premier League sides Sutton Coldfield Town, Halesowen Town and Stourbridge.

Long quipped: "We helped Halesowen out last season after proposed opponents Gresley Rovers dropped out.

"We went there with a scratch side and beat them 2-0. The only problem was the fact they took Kyle Morrison from us as a result!