Woking boss Garry Hill predicts tough season ahead

Pic: Refuel Performance Management

WOKING boss Garry Hill has warned that the club face a long season ahead and says he’s working with “a bottom-four budget”.

The ex-Dagenham and Rushden & Diamonds manager has been in charge at Kingfield for five-and-a-half years and guided them to the Conference South title in 2011-12.

The Cards have registered finishes of 12th, ninth, seventh and 12th in their four seasons in Non-League’s top flight under Hill but those heights might not be reached next term.

Hill says his playing budget has been reduced by 15 per cent and he has already lost goalkeeper Jake Cole to local rivals Aldershot and Chris Arthur to Crawley.

Striker Scott Rendell and captain Mark Ricketts are currently considering new contracts and Hill is clear in terms of what next season’s objective is.

“We have to build a squad good enough to stay in this league,” he told Get Surrey. “There’s no doubt about it, next season is going to be even tougher and people should realise we have got a bottom-four budget.

“We’ve always punched above our weight and we will have to do so again but it will be hard. Only three clubs have finished in the top half of the table in each of the last four years, Grimsby Town, Forest Green Rovers and Woking.

“We are part-time playing in a full-time league, that’s the reality and we have to deal with that the best we can. I have to work within the resources we have, which I’ve always done.”