Harleston Town manager Matt Halliday targeting improved Thurlow Nunn League Premier Division campaign after disappointing 2024/25
After a busy summer of recruitment, Matt Halliday is well aware that there will be plenty of focus on his Harleston Town side in 2025/26.
By Halliday’s own admission, the previous campaign was disappointing for the Wilderness Lane outfit.
They finished 13th in the Thurlow Nunn League Premier Division, losing 16 of their 38 fixtures.
And Halliday has taken swift action, bringing in six fresh faces this summer. Tom Huckerby and Ollie Sutton provide Step 4 experience, while Max Willett has scored more than 100 goals across the previous three campaigns for Framlingham Town. Shane Cox will add some leadership at the heart of the defence, while the midfield duo of Archie Gilmore and Alfie Bell both possess plenty of potential.
It all means that much more will be expected of Harleston this term – and Halliday has backed his players to live up to the billing.
“The group of players we’ve got, they’ll put pressure on themselves to do well so I don’t need to put anything extra on them,” he said.
“We’ve got a couple of tough games early on and if we can pick up points from those that will probably make people sit up and take notice.
“People are probably already looking at the players we’ve signed and the squad we’ve got, so we’ll be trying to live up to all of that. Ultimately we want to do much better than last season.
“It’s a new group and it may take a little while to gel, but I’d like to think we’ll be in and around those play-offs.”
And in a bid to give the group the best chance to hit the ground running, Harleston returned for pre-season training earlier than most of their counterparts.
It was a conscious decision made by Halliday, who wanted the new signings to become accustomed to their team-mates.
“We’ve made six signings that were all my choice alongside other people at the club,” he added.
“It’s down to me to get the best out of them now – it’s my team.
“The players that have come in have driven the standards and it’s been a process getting them in and making sure it gels.
“It might not happen straightaway but we got them in early to make sure those understandings can start to form.
“The good thing is that the players were happy to return to early and you can see the quality we’ve got.
“The whole of pre-season has been a good test and now we feel prepped and ready to go.”
Harleston will start the Premier Division season with back-to-back away games at Ely City tomorrow (3pm) and Thetford Town on Tuesday (7.45pm).