FROME Town have been relegated from the Southern League Premier Division after Friday’s 4-1 defeat at Basingstoke – but manager Danny Greaves has vowed that the club will ‘rebuild’ and come back stronger.
Speaking to Frome Times Danny said, “It hurts massively to be relegated. This is my first time being relegated as a manager, and it will be a first for a lot of the players too. There are supporters who aren’t going to be happy with our performance – you can’t please everyone. But no one is happy with relegation.
“The season has been really tough and frustrating – one of many downs and not that many highs. It’s definitely been a year of transition – a very tough year.
“I knew it was going to be tough; I joined the club late last summer and a number of players had departed, which left me very little time to do a complete rebuild of the team.
“The game against Hartley Wintney (13th April) was pretty much the final nail in the coffin. But it gives us a chance to reflect and think about where we want to go next. Obviously it is massively disappointing and not what we wanted, but we need to use this to our advantage now.
“Town has perhaps been punching above its weight for some time now – there have been some good spells, but a few tough years. So it might do us some good to step back and rebuild.
“This season we have used too many players – players have left and we have had new players coming in. We need a much more settled squad – that’s what I have learnt this season. Continuity is massively important.
“Support from the fans has been superb and the support I have received on a personal level has been really good. Despite the hurt there are lots of positive things going on at the club that we can all look forward to.
“I’ve sat down with the committee to talk about plans for the summer and the next season – there are some exciting things coming up going into summer.
“Over the summer I will look to add players to the team, we have some good youngsters coming through and we have an academy starting in September. I want to develop a good core team to give us the best chance to fight back next season. I’m sure the players will want to give it their everything to get back as quick as we can.”
Basingstoke Town 4 Frome Town 1
Ryan Bath’s early second half goal proved to only be a consolation as The Robins were well defeated 4-1 by Basingstoke Town.
The defeat confirmed Town’s relegation, leaving them in 21st place.
One positive was the league debut of young forward Ben Crossman who came on as a late second half substitute, his second appearance in all competitions.
