Peterborough Sports boss says excellent preparation is key to successfully completing a daunting task

Peterborough Sports manager Jimmy Dean (left) and captain Richard Jones celebrate promotion. Photo: James Richardson

The city side will be tackling relatvely huge opponents, most probably in the National North Division, next season. Former Football League clubs and traditional non-league big hitters with massive budgets and large fanbases will be visiting the Bee Arena.

Sports officials started preparing for next season within 24 hours of promotion from the Southern League being secured. The aim is to be more professional on and off the pitch, but without sacrificing the excellent team spirit and relationship with their own crowd, which have been big factors in the club’s rapid rise up the English football pyramid.

"It is a daunting task, there’s no getting away from that,” Dean admitted. “We will need to better on and off the pitch and that includes the managament and coaching staff. We will need to be cuter with the decisions we make to get every advantage we can in what will be a brutal division.

"We will play 46 league games, there will be many long midweek away trips and at the end of it four teams will be relegated. If we finish fifth from bottom that would be our greatest achievement. It will be hard, but this club has risen and met tough challenges before we can do it again. We must do all we can to make sure we haven’t flogged our guts out for the last 10 years only to come back down after one season.

"I don’t believe we need too many new players. There are a lot of players in our squad who have played at this level before like Ryan Fryatt, Dion Sembie-Ferris, Luke Warner-Eley, Michael Gash and Mark Jones so we have some good experience. We’ve also beaten teams at this level before in cup competitions.

"Our home form will be most important. We will have the worst ground in the league. We play in a tight intimate stadium with the fans right on top of the players and that will definitely help us.”

Sports are likely to continue to train twice a week, or once when there is no midweek match. There are virtual full-time professional clubs in the National North League who train up to four times a week.