WE are still newboys in the Lancashire League at Great Harwood, but we are no longer the newest boys and it has been nice going to some different grounds again this season.

I would say we are settled in now, in our second season, and there is absolutely no doubt that it was the right move for us.

But I’ve always been open about the fact that this has come about 15 years too late for us on the playing side of things.

Team strength generally runs in cycles and we are probably at one of the lower ends of that for the last 30-40 years in terms of where we are at compared to a team that won everything before them in the Ribblesdale League.

But there is a lot of hard work going on to bring in traditional coaches, and last year we hired our first ever senior coach.

There’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes, in both practice nights, to improving us, and - as player and chairman - I’m very happy with the new set-up.

We have plenty of players aged under 16-17 in the seconds and thirds and on average there’s always three Under 18s in the first team. That shows to me the future is bright.

We’ve also got a good bunch from age 11 to 15 so if they keep developing at the rate they are we will be set in the future. We just need to be patient and give them and the process time.

That is why we have got to be realistic with our expectations this season.

Lots of teams are striving for a top half finish for when the league splits into two next term, but that would be the worst possible thing that could happen to Great Harwood.

We have only got one player aged between 21 and 33 in the present side and we would struggle to be competitive in the top 12 right now. That’s not to say it won’t be competitive in the second division! But maybe a couple of years in the lower division would get the youngsters used to playing first team cricket and be better for their development and then we can push for promotion and move up through the ranks.

The players were fully briefed on where we think we stand and are fully supportive.

If we happen to be 11th or 12th we will finish where we finish. But there’s a lot of difficult games to come for us so if we can finish in that third quarter - between 13th and 17th - we will be happy, and then build from there.