Pitchero Non League

Craig Disley

.....great optimism – but warns they must start the campaign in style.

A host of new faces are expected to arrive during the summer – and he believes they will have to integrate quickly. The Mariners had just one win in their first six matches of the 2011/12 – leaving them to play catch-up.

Disley said: "I think there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic for next season.

"We have the basis of a good squad. If we keep the nucleus together and add a few faces then next year could be a good one for us.

"But we need to start well to give ourselves a chance of being in contention throughout the season."

Like his team-mates still under contract at the club, Disley recently started an eight-week close-season break.

Pre-season training doesn't get underway until the last week of June, giving the Town players ample time to recharge the batteries.

For Disley, it's also a good opportunity to completely heal a niggling ankle problem he has managed throughout much of the campaign. But he knows he will be itching to get back after just a couple of weeks rest.

The skipper, who missed just two league games in his first season at Blundell Park, added: "The ankle is just about back to how it should be but the rest will help.

"The season finishing in April makes it a long time off – something like eight weeks. You ask any footballer, though, and after two weeks off, they are ready to come back and I'm no different."

Disley believes missing out on the play-offs was a chance lost for the Mariners this season.

A mid-season run of fifteen league matches unbeaten put the Mariners in the frame for a late charge to the top five spots, only for Town to finish in eleventh.

Disley said: "The overriding emotion was disappointment.

"I think it was a chance missed to make the play-offs if I'm honest. We had the good run, we didn't really kick on.

"Maybe it was expecting too much. If we had enjoyed even a half-decent start to the season, things could have been different."

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