BLAKE KNOWS HE'S ONTO A SHORE THING WITH ROCKS

ROBBIE Blake has backed Bognor Regis Town’s young bucks to challenge for the Isthmian Premier play-offs next season.

- Chris Dunlavy

Though only good enough for a tenth-placed finish, last season’s 62-point haul was the highest the Rocks have recorded since Blake took charge in the aftermath of relegation from National League South six years ago.

And having retained the bulk of his youthful team, the former Burnley and Leeds forward is optimistic that Bognor can gatecrash the top five.

“I look back at last season and, in my opinion, we should have finished a little bit higher,” the 48-year-old told The NLP.

“Just after Christmas, we’d put ourselves in a really good position to latch onto the coattails of the play-off teams. But then two or three key players go down injured and we just haven’t got the resources to fill those gaps.

Trajectory

“We suffered during that period and finished the season quite strong again, so there was that feeling of ‘What if ?’.

“Now, with the players we’ve kept, we look at the squad we’ve got and we feel confident. I don’t mean confident in the sense that we’re going to win the league or anything like that. This is such a competitive league and everybody will be adding quality.