Nunn: Waders are becoming Southern League regulars

The Waders complete their third successive season at this level on Saturday with a trip to relegated Bideford, assured of a comfortable midtable berth.

Mr Nunn described the season as the most challenging so far after the club briefly flirted with relegation in 2014/15.

He said: “We set ourselves a target of 60 points and win, lose or draw this weekend, we will have pretty much hit that.

“We wanted to avoid a relegation battle and have a younger squad and we’ve done that. Several of the Biggleswade Under 18s side have started league games for us this year, and we are a much younger side overall.”

The season has included some memorable results. Waders lost by the only goal at home to champions Poole, and fought back to draw 2-2 in the return fixture. They did the double over Leamington, managed two draws against Redditch, and won at Weymouth.

Mr Nunn, who took over in 2006, said: “We have probably been batting above our weight. Maurice Dorrington (chairman) has done a brilliant job, and we should enjoy being in this league. There are a lot of bigger clubs and we are mixing it with them.”

That includes Hitchin Town, who won 5-3 at the Carlsberg Stadium on Saturday to secure a play-off berth: “Hitchin were much better than us on Saturday and thoroughly deserved the victory.

“They brought a fantastic following. That is the sort of club we want to become but it takes time. We are starting to become an established club at this level and we should be proud of that. When I arrived ten years ago we didn’t even have our own ground, we’ve come a long way.”

The club has had inconsistent periods during the season, something Mr Nunn put down to ‘game management’: “Sometimes our game management is poor. For instance we were winning at Chippenham 2-0 and lost 3-2.

“I won’t name teams, but sometimes other players go down claiming injuries and it can affect the momentum of a game. It’s not something I like, but there are other ways to manage a game such as getting the players into one area, crowding the other team out.

“At times we have been very naive.”

He expects there to be the usual changes in personnel during the summer: “Players will always leave and I think there’ll be a minimum of five new players, that may include one or two of the Under 18s progressing to the first team.

“We will find it hard to compete with other clubs’ budgets, so sometimes we can get players a couple of months into the season.”