Molynes United hunting play-off berth

Molynes United's first season in the National Premier League started brightly, faded rapidly, but eventually the newcomers managed to avoid relegation.

As they prepare for the upcoming campaign, club president Herman Cruickshank is targeting an appearance in the league playoff in their sophomore season with an injection of youth.

The club has supplemented last year's team with mostly youth and players from lower leagues as they prepare for the tentative November 14 start of the season, which is still awaiting final approval of health protocols .

The moves made by the club this transfer window focused on youth with players such as Roje Williams, Rickardo Phipps, Hakeem Mc Coy, Kemar Reid and Oneil Small being snapped up from the lower tiers. Midfielder Jeremy Nelson has returned to the club after his loan spell with Mount Pleasant ended last season.

New requirements

Cruickshank says that with the new requirements for this season demanding that eight under-21 players must be featured in the squad, they pushed forward to add promising young talent to complement the players who now understand the rigours of the top flight.

"Most of our players would have had at least one-year experience now going into their second year. And we just maintain between nine and 12 from last year. So we are now just blending [our youth in]," Cruickshank told STAR Sports.

The club were forced into a fire sale in January in order to keep financially afloat as they struggled during the season after winning their opening six games. With a reshaped team, Cruickshank is hoping that the squad can make a run at a play-off spot this time around.

"We [would] love to maintain a top six position. We don't want to go back down to the position that we were in last [season]," Cruickshank said. "That [wouldn't be] improvement for the club."

At the time that the league was cancelled, Molynes United were in 10th place with 29 points, only managing to win one game in 2020.