GRAHAM Knowles believes his Haslingden youngsters can learn the lessons from last season – and has banished mobile phones from the Bentgate dressing room in a bid to keep his young players’ minds on the game.

Knowles has taken the step to throw out technology in a bid to avoid a repeat of last year’s second half slump as Haslingden’s chances of glory slipped away.

After a bright start to 2011, the Bentgate outfit recorded just two wins from the start to July through until the end of the season as they dipped down into 10th place in the Lancashire League table.

But Knowles believes his team will come back stronger from that experience and said: “In some respects, last year will have done the younger lads some good.

“They learned a lesson from that – and if they take it on board then that all well and good.

“This year I have banned mobile telephones from the dressing room, they are a distraction for the lads.

“You know, watching a clip of some idiot turning a car over in London might amuse some people – but it certainly doesn’t win you cricket matches – and that, after all, is what we all want to do.

“The second half of last season was certainly a major disappointment for all of us but I really believe that if we can take those lessons on board we can go on to have a good season.”

After three seasons of service from English professional Phill Hayes, Haslingden have signed Kiwi ace Harry Boam for 2012 – and big things are expected from the 21-year-old after his impressive showings for Ribblesdale League side Settle two years ago.

“He is a good lad, although he is getting used to our dressing room just at the moment,” added Knowles.

“I am not sure if he has been in anwhere quite like that before – but he is getting used to us.

“And because he is young, the lads can relate to him.

“He is in the same age bracket as most of them and that is a good thing.

“I am very much the old man of the team at 38 and then you look at the rest they are young.

“You look at the likes of Lee Ingham and Lewis McIntosh who are next in line in their mid-20s but that is good for the future.

“The lads may be young but some of them have been in my team for three or four seasons; they are pretty used to Senior League cricket and I want to see them starting to step up now.

“The signs are good and we will just see how things go.”