Diss Town boss Garth Good admitted the club is in a ‘much better position’ than this time last year, as he revealed every player wants to remain at Brewers Green Lane and that the club will field an under-23s team in the upcoming season.
When the former Norwich City Academy coach took up the reins at Diss a year ago, he was met with a depleted squad – if three players is enough to be called a ‘squad’ – that was in desperate need of an overhaul.
Signings eventually came through the door, some arriving as late as February, and, after a rocky start, the Tangerines fought their way to an eighth-placed finish in the Thurlow Nunn League First Division North – four places better than the campaign prior.
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Good hailed the atmosphere created at Brewers Green Lane last season between the players and loyal local supporters, but admitted it was ‘disappointing’ to miss out on the play-offs.
This summer had to be different. The club are already back in pre-season training ahead of their curtain-raiser on Saturday, July 27 and the Diss boss said: “Everyone who was involved last year all want to stay.
“Last year I was running around like a headless chicken trying to find players to build a squad, this year it’s the complete opposite.
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“People are coming to me to try and join our environment, which is really pleasing. We’re in a much better position as a whole club.
“If I’m being honest, we’ve got quite a competitive group anyway, so I feel if we were unable to sign anyone, we’re still in a strong position anyway.”
Around ‘30-40 players’ attended the Tangerines’ maiden training session of the 2024/25 campaign, as the club has re-established its reserve team as an under-23s side – who will play in the Thurlow Nunn League Under-23 Division (formerly reserves).
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The team will be managed by Diss Town Under-18s coach Spencer Derham, who already knows a lot of the players that will make up the squad.
“It was an area of the club I feel we had to rectify,” admitted Good.
“We had seven under-18s play in the first team last year, the jump sometimes is quite a big one.
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“If we are to foster them with the right development, we need to make sure there is a gap between those two sides.”
Diss have an almighty head-start on where they were this time last year, causing Good to state that a play-off place ‘has to be the goal’ for the upcoming campaign.
“We wanted to create a club and environment where players were playing for the shirt, wanting to be there and wanting to take the club forward,” he said.
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“We made major steps forward last year. If we can add consistency to our good performances, (and) if we can be challenging to get back in the play-offs this year, (it) would be a real achievement.
“This year is about being able to built a better tactical understanding of how we want to approach things, both in and out of possession, and develop our already-solid foundation.”