Promotion is Tadley’s main priority this season

TADLEY Calleva manager Joe Lawler is still full of confidence, despite seeing his side knocked out of the FA Cup in their season opener on Saturday.

Tadley went down 3-2 in their extra preliminary round clash at home to Southampton side Millbrook.

But Lawler took plenty of positives from the defeat.

He said: “We went 3-0 down in the first half and virtuallygave them all three goals.

“But after that, as much as you can be positive in defeat, the character the boys showed was great. We dominated the second half and were pushing for the equaliser.

“The FA Cup is a great competition and it is nice for the club to have a god cup run, but in terms of the league it does not define our season.

“Our priorities are definitely on the league, particularly after last season.”

A tremendous end-of-season run took Tadley into the Combined Counties League Premier Division South play-offs, where they were beaten by AFC Croydon Athletic.

Lawler said: “We have managed to keep 90 per cent of last season’s squad and we have five or six new signings.

“We are looking to build on last season when we had a very young squad.

“We definitely punched above our weight last season and we will hope to at least equal our finishing position.

“We go into the season full of confidence and looking to get off to a good start.”

Tadley kick off their league campaign on Saturday when they entertain Alton.

They were due to start on Tuesday night at Camberley, but problems with the Surrey club’s floodlights caused the game to be postponed.

Last Saturday Tadley made a nightmare start to the season as they fell 3-0 down to Millbrook after 45 minutes.

They pulled a goal back four minutes into first-half stoppage time through Keiron Farmer.

And George Armstrong struck on 56 minutes to make it 3-2, but, despite bossing the half, they couldn’t break through again.