CAMPION are well into their second season in the Northern Counties East League are are looking like promotion contenders once more.

James Bicknell's men challenged for the play-off places right up until the later stages of last season and they handily placed in third spot after 11 games this term.

Committee member and club treasurer Andy Shepard said: "It's been a decent start and I think we've been lucky injury wise which has helped us a lot.

"What we tried to do in our recruitment policy was increase the number of players and also get a better balance. We tried to get players in that could improve us after our first season in this league."

He added|: "The Northern Counties is a big league and there are a lot of established clubs around and we learned a lot in our first season.

"Last year we were working with a squad of about 15 or 16 and we really needed 18 or 19.

"That is one thing that we wanted to change and we have addressed it, we've got some strength in depth now and it's showing.

"In games when we've had players missing or when we've needed to bring substitutes on, the side hasn't been weakened in the slightest."

Shepard has no doubt about the club's ambitions. "We were looking forward to going again this season after the summer and the ultimate aim is to gain promotion.

"I think that’s the same for every club, you want to compete and be the best at whatever you do.

“First of all we want to get into the top half of the table, then we want to get into the play-offs.

"After that we want to gain automatic promotion and what would be the ultimate would be to win the league.

“I think you have to goals, targets to aim for, otherwise why are we doing this?

"It helped us in our summer recruitment that we did well last season as it probably made it easier to attract good players – but there are a lot of semi-pro clubs in this area so it’s difficult as we all want the best players and the promising prospects.”