REDDITCH United manager Matt Clarke believes his current squad of players is “the best team” he has ever worked with during his time as Reds boss.
The Reds have enjoyed a fine first half of the season, having competed at the top end of the Southern League Premier Central table for much of the campaign, which was in stark contrast to last year where Redditch fought off the threat of relegation before eventually finishing well clear of the drop.
And boss Clarke, who turned down an approach from an unnamed club for his services back in September, believes his current group is the best he has worked with since he was appointed Reds manager in September 2020.
Clarke said: “The recruitment was good, we managed to get players in on the budget that we have that are very good players – it’s the best team that I’ve ever had in my time as manager of Redditch.
“That is reflected in the points total, there’s still a lot of games we should have got more points in but we haven’t, every manager at every level would say the same.
“The goals against column has got to be better, we’ve conceded more goals than we conceded last season, we’ve made a lot of individual errors in the games that we have been beaten in.
“Teams haven’t really done anything special to break us down, we have to eradicate those errors if we want to climb even higher up the table.
“We have to work really hard for our goals and we’ve scored some good goals but we’ve been conceding rubbish goals, we just have to make sure we do better with that and if we do I’m sure we’ll get more points on the board.”
Redditch sit just two points outside the play-off places in ninth position at the midway point of the season with summer signing Max Sheaf catching the eye in midfield.
However, Clarke is keen to ensure that his side manage their expectations in the second half of the campaign as Redditch attempt to challenge for an unlikely top-five finish having impressed on their travels this term.
Clarke added: “We’ve got off to a really good start, we’ve been in and around the top four for most of the season, we’ve had a blip recently but we’re on 32 points at the halfway point of the season, if someone had offered me that at the start of the season, I’d have snapped your arm off.
“When you start so well expectations levels raise and people get disappointed when you have a blip, everybody in our league has a had a blip, nobody is more disappointed than me and the players when that happens.
“We need to have a bit of a reality check, we finished 15th last season and well away from the relegation zone in the end having struggled up until half way, we’re progressing really well but it’s small steps.
“If we were to finish eighth come the end of the season, I think that would be a successful season because we finished 15th the season before and the last full season before that Redditch would have been relegated but for the Covid break.
“When you put things into perspective, we’re still punching above our weight in comparison to other clubs and other local clubs with much bigger budgets and much bigger expectation levels.”
Redditch travel to local rivals Alvechurch on Boxing Day (Monday, December 26) with kick-off at 1pm at Lye Meadow.
