Promotion aim for Chorley boss

9:20am Wednesday 30th April 2008

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Tony Hesketh did what he came to do when he took the Chorley manager's job 12 weeks ago - steered the side away from the prospect of relegation to the North West Counties League, largely with players he inherited from former boss Gerry Luczka.

This was a tribute to the previous Magpies' boss, who had begun a massive but long overdue rebuilding job.

Luczka said many times that the side were one or two positions short of providing really strong opposition but admitted that consistency was a problem.

Hesketh brought in his own considerable experience as a manager at Conference and UniBond level that clearly gave confidence to a beleaguered squad of players battered and bruised during a traumatic season when little went right for very long.

The Magpie boss also spelled out his ambitions for next season.

He said: "We don't want to be making up the numbers. Promotion has to be the aim for a club like Chorley and the sooner the better."

He was well pleased to end the season with two league victories, just as he had begun his tenure with two wins. It was a long arm of coincidence that left-back Dave German scored on the first day and the last day of the season, ironically both times against Bridlington Town.

Saturday's success, which consigned Brid to the bottom of the table and a relegation spot, was Chorley's first against the East Coast club for 14 years, when they won 2-1 at Bridlington's temporary home at Belle Vue, Doncaster.

Hesketh said the squad would need reinforcements and the obvious target is a front man capable of scoring 25 or 30 goals. Departures would be inevitable, depending on who would be coming in.