Attenborough reflects on season as Belper end with defeat

Saturday’s 4-0 loss at home to Stockton ended a campaign that had seen Belper challenging for a play-off place until late on when a run of five defeats in six games proved costly.

And as well as reflecting on that defeat, Attenborough assessed the season overall and felt his team didn’t quite have enough in the tank to sustain a challenge after a gruelling season.

He told Radio Belper Town: “It was one game too many for us; we’ve had four games in seven days with three long away trips. The game was 0-0 after 60 minutes so we competed really well for an hour, and we just ran out of steam.

“We used all three substitutes to try and keep it fresh, but lads were limping all over the place, with injuries and stretching and it was just a struggle. I actually thought we did really well today, although I was disappointed in the goals we conceded because after all the work we put in we concede a goal under the cross bar from a set piece.

“We’ve needed the end of the season for three or four games now and we’ve finally got there, and it gives everyone chance to have a rest and reset and try and build again for next season.

“I always think about perspective in football; if we’d been bottom half or mid-table all season and then gone off on a flyer over these six or seven games and finished sixth, we’d have said what a great end to the season and everyone would be buzzing for next year.

“Because we’ve been in and around the play-offs pretty much all season it feels as though it’s a disappointment, of course it does. There’s been a few things out of our control like injuries and suspensions in places.

“We can take accountability in a few cases, but we’ve had red cards that shouldn’t have been, and we’ve had players leave the club in key areas at bad times. What I’ve said to a few people is that four teams came down last season when we were rock bottom and I think ten points adrift of Liversedge.

“But we’ve done the best out of the four, we’ve finished sixth and Stalybridge and Nantwich have finished in the bottom half in the West (Division), and we’ve finished above Liversedge in this league.

“So, it’s by no means a bad season although obviously we’re disappointed not to get there and if nothing else, we’ve built a really good foundation now having started the season with only two players from last year.”

Attenborough now hopes he can build on the progress made this season, as well as being keen to see Belper moved to the more geographically favourable Division One Midlands which would involve far less travelling through the campaign.

He said: “We’ve got a good core together and we know we need to go out and get four or five or maybe six players that really improve us, and if we can recruit well and recruit properly and hopefully get shifted to the Midland Division.

“People can say what they like about this division (East), it’s tough and there’s a lot of good sides in it. We got a raw deal with travelling. We’ve done 700 miles this week and someone gave me a bit of paper saying that if we included training, we’ve done about 10,000 miles which is too much.

“So, we’ve competed and acquitted ourselves well and things went against us this last two or three weeks with the back log. We won’t make excuses and we will reset and go again next year.

“I ask the fans to keep coming down and supporting us. I said in my programme notes we’ve given (the fans) some good days this season; a bit of good in there a bit of bad and a bit of average, and it’s had a bit of everything.

“We’ve got a hard-working team that doesn’t give up, and we’ve scored a lot of last-minute goals with some good away days. It’s a big shout out to those hardy fans who do come everywhere, there’s a core of ten or fifteen who do go everywhere and coupled with really good home attendances it’s been really brilliant.

“We want them back next season and with as many season tickets flogged as we can and hopefully, we will put together a team that excites people and give it a good go.”