ROSSENDALE United are ready to get their floodlights up to Nationwide Conference standard -- and hope their team won't be too far behind.

The North West Counties League Division One champions have received an award of £22,812 from the Football Stadium Improvement Fund.

"It is a fantastic award," said the Rossendale chairman Andrew Connolly.

"We will be using it to bring the floodlights and all the electrics up to Conference standard during the summer. It is tremendous for us."

And while off-the-field improvements are afoot -- including the Dark Lane pitch which is being reseeded -- the chairman is confident all will continue to go well on the field.

Rossendale sealed a place in the UniBond League after 12 years out of it and are now looking to continue the upward trend.

"We think we are well prepared," said Connolly.

"We have a great young side and an ambitious manager in Jim McCluskie.

"We are not going to be happy with just consolidating. We want to continue going up.

"We know it won't be easy but we think we might be allowed to play a bit more football in this league which I think will suit us."

The Dark Lane club are sure they will keep hold of their assets -- one of them being 19-year-old hotshot Craig Sargeson, who topped the First Division scoring charts and has been attracting attention from Natwionwide League clubs.

"I think we have sorted things out with Craig. I'm sure he wants to stay," he said. And while there may be some new additions, the chairman thinks the promotion-winning squad should be good enough to keep Rossendale on the up -- and they could even copy Vauxhall's example and secure two successive promotions.

"We will be looking to sign two or three new players and, hopefully, everybody from last season will stay.

"We are not going to go out and pay silly money. We want people who will play for the team not for an extra £10.

"Jim has built up an excellent team spirit here, they respect him and word has got round what a good coach he is.

"We have players wanting to come to Rossendale but we have some very good players here already.

"There is a massive buzz about the club and we want to carry this into next season."

Getting promoted does cost more money with increased travel costs but Connolly is confident it won't be too much of a burden.

"We are looking for local businesses to sponsor us, they have helped us in the past.

"And this time last year we may have been getting 40 people watching us, towards the end this year, we were getting 300.

"We want to keep them and add to them and we are hopeful, playing at a higher level, the crowds will come."