SPORTING director Ted Grizzell believes Malvern Town will be one of the surprise packages in the West Midlands Regional League this season.
Town will begin their campaign on Saturday (3pm) when they travel to Cradley Town before facing Bewdley Town just three days later.
Grizzell said excitement has been building at the club ahead of the new season as they have undergone a number changes in the summer, including renovation work to improve the HDanywhere Community Stadium.
And the 24-year-old said he was confident Les Jones’ men can deliver on the pitch and upset some of the pre-event favourites.
“We have been really eager to get the season started,” he said. “Pre-season has gone really well, so there is a buzz around the club ahead of what’s to come.
“Off the field things have moved on a lot since me and Chris got involved and we have seen so much develop this summer, with all the work that has gone on.
“And we genuinely believe that we will be able to emulate that on the pitch. We are not going into it being unrealistic as we have still got to realise that there are teams within that league who are paying a lot of money for players who are ex professionals or have played at a semi-professional level.
“But at the same time I think we can surprise a few people this season. I think there is mutually agreed idea across this level of football that unless you pay lots of money for players you won’t achieve anything.
“But we believe we can upset the apple cart and change that idea as we have got a very good group of players.”
With the launch of the club’s u21 and u18 teams this summer as well as more strength and depth to the squad, Grizzell also believes there will be plenty of competition for places.
“We are in a strong position squad wise this year, so we will have a positive competition for places,” he said.
“We said to the boys last week, ‘we have got 20 players in the squad now and there are only going to be 11 starting each week’ and made the point that ‘if you buy into this concept then it will make you a better player’.
“And to be fair to every single one of the boys involved they said they were more than happy for that to be the case, so we are really excited.”