Hollands and Blair surprised many last seasons with their challenging season in the SCEFL Premier, manager Simon Halsey has challenged his 2020/2021 squad to take things to the next level.

Blair have made a successful start to their season, winning 1-0 in the FA Cup at Colliers Wood on Wednesday night, and it was a win that more than pleased the boss told KSN.

“I personally haven’t had a very good experience in the Cup over the years,” he admitted, “and I don’t think the Club have had too much of a run since they first entered either, so it was good for both of us to get a win against a very good Colliers Wood side and now go away to a good Isthmian side (Burgess Hill) on Saturday week!”

“We could have scored in the first minute and started really well in the first 25/30 minutes. We scored a good corner from a header at a corner, near post in front of a central defender which was good.

“We played some good stuff in the first half but I just thought that at times we were a bit one dimensional and did the same thing but it was the first competitive game for the boys in six months, and I think that we did well against a very good Colliers Wood side to be fair.”

Some will say that having a competitive game leading into a new season is a good thing, but when it’s the FA Cup, the Blair boss doesn’t agree as he told us.

“I’m disappointed that we start with the FA Cup before the League. I just thing that for little clubs like us, that FA Cup win on Wednesday was massive just financially and I just think that we should have a few League games to really get going to give every team a chance to really be competitive in our first game, I think its unfair to be playing something that’s got a £1,200 prize money first game.

“I think that you should be playing games like that when we’re up and running – I just don’t see why we have to travel round to the other side of London on a Wednesday night, but that’s COVID for you I suppose, the new norm!”

For their opening game in the new SCEFL season, Halsey will take his side to South East London to face League new boys Balham, a trip that the Blair boss is looking forward to.

“It’s a step into the unknown,” he admitted. “We know the ground as they ground share at Croydon, and the pitch isn’t too bad up there so hopefully it will be great for the rest over the COVID 19 period.

“I don’t know too much about them but with them being the new boys, I’m sure that they are going to be looking to prove a point, they’ll come at us firing on all cylinders I would imagine and be lively and excited about moving into SCEFL.

“We’ll need to be at our best, and I’ll have to make sure that I pick the right sixteen to take to the game, and more importantly the right eleven to start the game. So, it’s a bit into the unknown but we’re now an established SCEFL side so we should go into the game and let them worry about us.”

“We weren’t out of the top five all last season, we had chances to go top, second and be right amongst it, but we didn’t take them. So this year, knowing what my players have got and what they gave me last year and what they can give me this year along with the additions that we’ve made, I think that we can really keep us in the top four or five.

“We’ve just brought in a lad from our Academy who’s only sixteen who is a different class and I’m excited to get him playing in the right games. Hopefully if the lads keep applying themselves like they did in the Cup in midweek, and if we can keep emulating what we did last year.

“When we went away last year, we played some nice football whilst at home we played a certain way and that’s how it has to be. We can mix it up, we can be ugly and direct and we can play football, and I’m hoping the new season will move on from last season and we can get ourselves a few more wins and maybe get into the top three or four.”