Season review - Sidley United

The Blues consolidated their promotion from Division Two of the Sussex County Football League in 2009-10 with a commendable 13th place finish in Division One this term.

And as well as Sidley have done after having to rebuild from the loss of key players last summer, Lambert is keen to go one step further in 2011-12.

He said: “If we can keep most of this side together and add one or two, I think we’ll be there or thereabouts next season. I don’t just want to survive, I want to challenge. I’ve always wanted to win things.”

There were fears in some quarters they may struggle at the start of the campaign, but Lambert strengthened his squad with some quality signings as the season progressed and Sidley ended up a comfortable 17 points above the bottom three.

“We’ve played some good stuff and gradually built the team up again,” Lambert continued. “Second half of the season we’ve gone really well. We’ve beaten some good sides this year and with a bit more killer instinct in the box I think we could’ve finished higher.”

Only the top seven sides finished with better defensive records than Sidley, but just the bottom two scored less and it is in the attacking half of the field where Lambert will be looking to recruit over the summer, albeit with limited resources compared to many rival clubs.

The full article will appear in tomorrow’s Bexhill Observer.