Adams: Stability key to Stratford Town's rise

MANAGER Carl Adams has underlined his commitment to Stratford Town and believes stability will prove to be vital to the club.

Stratford’s players returned to training on Thursday ahead of the club’s second season in the Evo-Stik Southern League Premier Division, which kicks off on 9th August.

Town will be looking to build on their 2015/16 campaign, which saw them finish 19th and comfortably avoid relegation by six points.

Now the club are setting their sights further up the table and the Stratford boss admits he can’t wait to get started as Town bid to establish themselves as a firm fixture in the Southern League Premier Division.

“Stratford is a great club — it has a great future ahead,” said Adams, who has turned down several offers from other clubs in the past two seasons.

“Over the years I have had opportunities to go elsewhere, but Stratford are a stable club and I’ve got no reason to leave whatsoever.

“If I was to walk away now, it would feel like unfinished business. There is a good connection between myself and the directors and sometimes you have to realise when you’re on to a good thing.

“I’ve built up a stable club and my commitment to the club is because I see a very good future for it.”

The Town boss has dampened down talk of a possible play-off bid this time around and instead wants to focus on ensuring the club are not relegated after a season or two, in a similar manner to recent casualties Paulton Rovers and Bedworth United.

He said: “Staying in this league is the desire again. We’ve just inherited teams like Basingstoke and Hayes & Yeading. We must not forget we are still one of the smallest clubs in the league.

“We obviously want to improve on what we did last season, but the main aim is to stay in this league and keep growing and progressing.

“Paulton went up two years ago and they’ve now been relegated. Bedworth came up then went straight back down. We won’t want to be that story.

“Targeting the play-offs at the moment is not realistic. We are no better than a Watford or a Bournemouth. We just want to grow year in, year out and get some proper stability.”

Full story in this week's Herald.