BOSS Wayne Whitbread reckons the time is right for Clee Hill United to push for a place in the West Midlands Regional League following a season of heightened expectations.

Whitbread admitted his pre-season target for a top-three finish had been “tongue in cheek” but after finishing fourth in the Mercian League, seven points behind champions Oakengates Athletic, he has reconsidered his stance.

Add to that United's success over the title-winners in the Premier Division Cup final and the gaffer feels bullish about next term.

“At the start of the season we’d have been over the moon with fourth,” said Whitbread. “Tongue in cheek, I said I wanted the top three but looking back we are probably slightly disappointed.

“When you look at the games we lost, we feel we could have finished higher and even pushed for the title.

“In late September and early October, we went through a rocky patch. We struggled to put out a team and lost three games against sides that finished in the bottom four. That cost us massively.

“Injuries, holidays and work commitments hit you at different stages of any season but that killed us and we probably did well to get as close as we did from there.

“We have to try to win the league next season. We watched Oakengates get their trophy after the cup final and said ‘that has to be our aim’.

“If we can keep together this group of players and stay injury free, we have to feel confident. You never know what you’re going to be up against with new teams and players coming in at this level.

“You can’t take anything for granted but we want to be up there, trying to get promoted. We’d have to talk it through with the players but generally, I think the feeling is that we want to progress.

“If we didn’t set that target, I wouldn’t want that to be the reason for lads to start looking elsewhere. If we get the chance and we can do it financially, we would certainly like to have a crack at it.”

United rounded off their campaign with a 7-4 victory over Oakengates on Saturday.

Josh Carpenter opened the scoring with Liam Whitbread doubling the lead from the penalty spot. Craig Breakwell made it three before Athletic hit back but Whitbread’s second made it 4-1 to United at half-time.

Carpenter, Breakwell and substitute Adam Warren went on to complete a memorable day for Clee Hill. Damon Bateman, Matt Elsmore, Michael Evans and substitute Ryan Perry scored for Oakengates.

“We took the lead against the run of play to be honest,” said Whitbread. “They really came at us in the first 10 minutes and we were not at the races.

“Josh scored a brilliant individual goal and we kicked on from there. We played some really good football with some great team goals in there as well.”