Football Season Guide

Hyde FC finished the previous season as undisputed and fully deserved Blue Square North champions and will expect to keep their upward projection in the upcoming campaign. However, soon after Garry Lowe and his players put the champagne on ice, it became clear that the next season will be a much more challenging and gruelling one. Lowe left the position of a first-team manager due to disagreements over the budget for the next season with the chairman reportedly not only refusing to increase the budget but actually slashing it. Former Hyde player and interim boss Steve McNiven was given the task to lead the charge for survival but even at this early stage it looks like a very hard campaign ahead. With the exception of Phil Jevons, the signings have been underwhelming and the squad is still lacking in both quality and depth with a week of the season left. Premature conclusions are dangerous for newly-promoted teams as the winning momentum from the previous season is a powerful asset, as Braintree showed last season, but it still looks difficult to see the team beating the drop given that only Scott Spencer and David Poole from the squad from last season look like players capable of finding the back of the net and making the team look more dangerous. Thus, relegation seems to be on the cards for the small club from Lancashire unless they put some rabbit out of the hat over the course of the season.