ANOTHER improved season.

That is the target for Llandyrnog United as the big kick-off for the Lock Stock Welsh Alliance League fast approaches.

The Cae Nant side begin their Division One campaign with a trip to newly promoted Mynydd Llandegai on Saturday, August 12.

Llandyrnog United boss Ryan Harden said: “Preparations haven’t been too bad to be honest.

“We have had some mixed results, but we have got a lot of lads who play cricket.

“It should settle down, now.

“We have the next couple of weeks to get things ready and we have got our last pre-season game away to Penmaenmawr (tonight).”

On the players’ front, Harden added: “Most of them (the cricketers) are coming back and they played their last game on Saturday.

“We won’t have (goalkeeper) Stuart Griffiths for a month, but Danny Jones has signed for us.”

Last season proved to be a promising one for Llandyrnog, following on from a campaign that almost saw them being relegated from Division One of the Lock Stock Welsh Alliance League.

A dozen wins ensured that United bagged an eighth place finish in Division One and they only finished five points adrift of sixth-placed Penrhyndeudraeth in the final rankings.

“We have got a newly reformed reserve team,” added Harden.

“Towards the end of last season we were very thin on the ground with players.

“The lack of a reserve side hit us a fair bit.”

As for the squad, Harden added: “We have managed to keep hold of everyone we wanted to, even though we had interest from higher placed clubs.”

Looking at the challenges ahead, Harden said: “What we are looking to do is improve on last season.

“There’s a couple of teams in our league throwing quite a bit of money around.

“But, there’s no reason why we can’t get a top-six finish this season.”