I HAD a chat to the lads last Thursday and told them that Saturday would be my last team talk as manager.

It was emotional and they all gave me a hug as they left the dressing room but they’ve been really good and they wanted to try and get a result for me and the supporters against Arlesey.

Again, we didn’t get the breaks we needed on the day.

A defensive lapse let Zema (Abbey) in to score and we should have had a second goal just before half-time. Even one of their players said it was over the line.

The supporters were great to me and I like to think that 99 per cent of them recognise what I’ve done with the side over the last five years.

We’ve probably overachieved sometimes and we’ve had to deal with difficult budget cuts and situations.

I want to thank all of the local managers and everyone else in the county that has helped make my job easier over the years too.

My remit was to try to bring in young players to move the club forward and I’m leaving Nathan (Rudge) with a committed group who are hungry to push on next year.

We’ve both identified about 10 or 12 players that we’d like to look at and the conversations we’ve had so far have been positive.

We’ve got to get out and watch games and talk to players and I know Nath is meeting with two or three in the next few weeks.

I’ve also got to look at the new second team and once we know what league they’ll be in, we can start thinking about getting a manager in place.

When we find out, then we can decide if we should promote from within or look to advertise for the best local candidate to take over.

There’s a lot of excitement and anxiety around at the moment because the club is moving forward.