Finsbury Park coach Gareth Chapman is hoping his side can continue riding their confidence and produce another promotion push in Herts/Middlesex One, writes Jacob Ranson.

Chapman’s side won the Herts/Middlesex Division Two title last season to earn promotion and he is now keen to make it back-to-back promotions.

He did admit last year was a big step-up for his side but they grew into the challenge and excelled after the club spent years in the merit leagues.

“Last year was a really big step-up for us as we had to work our way through the merit leagues,” Chapman said.

“Last year’s league was a new animal for us, in regards of what to expect and where we could go in it, but I think it brought the guys up to a level that they should be playing and allowed them to keep progressing.

“Hopefully we get the same sort of thing this year, which again is a whole new challenge that the club has never faced. In my eyes we’ve got a strong enough squad to really go and challenge in this league.”

Chapman was forced to retire due to an injury but revealed confidence pushed his side on and he wants it to continue this campaign.

“In any walk of life guys, girls, everyone loves winning and last year we just got on a roll and kept going,” he said.

“The first team hasn’t lost in 2018 and you can see in pre-season the confidence is there and we want to keep that going as long as we can.”

Chapman did say they will take this season game by game but he sees no reason why they can’t be challenging for honours after playing in the same league himself.

“We always take it game by game, but I have the target that we want to be aiming for promotion again,” he added.

“I’ve actually played in the league that we’ve gone into in the past and I feel we are strong enough as a club that we should be challenging to hopefully win the league again.

“I managed to dislocate my wrist a few seasons ago. I had full hand restructure and, maybe luckily for me at the time when I was going through a bad period, the club needed a coach, so they came to me.

“I now get to part my wisdom of playing onto a team of players that I already knew very well.”