Another long season has come to an end, with largely mixed results for south Essex’s clubs.

Here, Luke Lambert rounds up what has been a hugely eventful and entertaining nine months.

Now, Concord Rangers manager Adam Flanagan discusses the Beach Boys’ efforts in the National League South.

 

l How do you assess what Concord Rangers have achieved this season? Would you class it a success?

I think the club retaining its league status should be classed as a success but for me the season was disappointing.

I want more than for us to just survive, I expect the players in my team to want more than that and equally the fans at Concord expect more than that so none of us will be happy with how this season has gone and I am not going to sugar coat it.

 

l What was the biggest plus?

That we retained our league status. I think earlier in the season people thought we would go down but we proved them wrong and look forward to going into a fifth season in this league.

I was happy that we were able to build an environment that meant the young players in our team had to stand up and be accountable. On occasions nine of our starting 11 some weeks were 21 or younger which I doubt many other clubs could match.

We have managed to bring some of the youngsters from the under-18’s into the first team set up and we will continue to try to do that.

My hope is that in a few years that we can push for three or four of the first team to have been through the club’s youth policy.

I also felt losing only two games at home from the end of September, considering where we were in the league, was a good achievement. There were far too many draws but hopefully, if we can turn some of them into wins next year, we will be even more formidable at home.

 

l And the biggest negative?

Going out of all the cup competitions early was the biggest negative for me and next year we must do better in all of them, especially the Essex Senior Cup which I would like to win once again.

 

l Best performance?

Not many performances stood out for me this season if I am being honest. Beating Whitehawk to retain our league status was the most important as the players could have let the match get the better of them but they performed superbly on the day and got the win we needed.

 

l Do you feel the team has progressed in the past 12 months, looking back to the 2015/16 campaign?

I would be lying if I said I felt we have progressed this season over what we achieved last year.

What I would say is the team improved significantly during the course of the season and the team we ended with was stronger than what we started with.

The players that joined weren’t available in pre-season so we did well to bring them in and they helped play a part in our improvement.

 

l What have you learned about the team/ and yourself this year?

I have learned more about myself this season than I did last year. I think football is an easier place when things are going well yet it’s when you are faced with adversity that you get an idea of someone’s character.

This season has been physically and mentally exhausting but I know it will help drive me on to make sure we don’t have another one like it again.

 

l What needs to change/improve next season?

We conceded too many poor goals this season and this needs to be an area that is addressed prior to next season.

We also need more goals coming from all over the pitch as the goal spread was heavily weighted on a few players this year.

 

l Can you give your team a mark out of 10 this season?

I would find it hard to give us more than a six out of 10 for this season.