Ward: we want to keep on improving (From Gazette)

Ward: we want to keep on improving

9:31am Tuesday 7th August 2012 in Colchester Utd By Jonathan Waldron

John Ward is refusing to make any bold predictions, ahead of his third season in the Colchester United hot seat.

But the U’s manager admitted it would be “special” to improve on their two successive tenth-place finishes, in League One.

Colchester kick-off the new campaign with a trip to play Yeovil Town in the first round of the Capital One Cup next Tuesday night.

And they begin the new league programme with a match at Preston North End, hoping to repeat last season’s opening-day success at Deepdale.

Ward said: “I’m always relatively cautious about what I say at this time of the season.

“But I want to improve and we’ve said that all the way through.

“If I come up with ridiculous predictions, they’ll be knocking me back in January if they’re not right.

“We’ve finished eighth, tenth and tenth in the three years - they’ve been the fourth, fifth and sixth best positions that this club has ever finished in 75 years.

“To improve upon that would be quite special and to win promotion would be fantastic.

“But we’ll try and do our best to improve things and there are a lot of good things going on off the pitch with the schools and youngsters working here.

“It’s my job to try and make sure that the first team stays strong.”

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