Clean slate for Rangers opener
Stafford Rangers manager Chris Brindley has told his players they start the Blue Square North campaign with a clean slate at Hyde.
The club have endured a disappointing pre-season, losing six of eight friendly matches, closing out with a 2-0 defeat at home to Hednesford last Saturday.
But the importance of that result pales into insignificance when measured against the 2009/10 curtain raiser at Ewen Fields tomorrow (3pm).
Rangers hit the road to face a club who shouldn't even be in the league - they were reprieved at the expense of Kings Lynn, who were demoted because their Walks Lane ground was not up to scratch.
But Brindley knows all about a team that were down there with his side fighting against relegation last term.
And with Workington, Redditch and Farsley from last season's bottom half to follow after Tuesday home opener against promoted Corby, the manager knows his team must fly out of the traps.
He said: "We are looking forward to it, you always do on the opening day. It hasn't been the best of pre-seasons for us but, at the end of the day, that doesn't matter at this point. It's now that matters.
"You get no points for winning friendlies. We won't be the only ones that have suffered bad results in the close season.
"The first five games are doubly important for us, because we are playing a lot of the teams that were in and around us last season near the bottom. So it's important that we start well.
"I know five results leaves you a long way off, but that is the sort of start that we must aim for."
Rangers will line up against their 20-goal top scorer from last season in David McNiven, now a Hyde player after leaving Marston Road at the end of his two-year contract this summer.
An often controversial but deadly striker, Brindley never wanted to let the 31-year-old go but - as the club's highest paid player - he was a luxury he could ill afford.
But the manager knows only too well what he can do, and has put his defenders on alert.
He said: "I would expect him to play against us tomorrow and we will keeping a close eye on him. He is a dangerous player, a great finisher, so we will have to be very careful of him."
