Longridge CC's new captain looks forward to Lancaster test

Longridge, who finished fourth in 2021, make the trip to a Lancaster team which took runners-up spot behind champions Blackpool.

As opening days go, it could have been a lot easier for Platt, who takes charge of the senior XI for the first time following Nick Wilkinson’s decision to step down at the end of last season.

Nevertheless, it’s a challenge he’s looking forward to with Longridge having acquitted themselves well in their two previous Northern League campaigns.

He said: “When we got the original fixtures, it was meant to be Vernon Carus away – playing our friends from down the road!

“Obviously, it got changed to Lancaster so I wasn’t sure what to make of it because they are both really difficult ties to be getting first up.

“We went there (Lancaster) last year and got rained off halfway through, but that gave us a bit of a taste for how the pitch plays.

“We’ll got there looking to start off on the front foot: it’s probably nicer to have a home game first up but we’re away from and we’ll have to deal with it.”

Teams across all sports usually say their aim for the season ahead is to improve on how they performed the year before.

In Longridge’s case, they head into the campaign knowing that five more points last year would have transferred a fourth-placed finish into second position.

“It’s a difficult one,” Platt acknowledged when asked if he had a target in mind for this year.

“The last couple of years had been uncertain because of Covid but I think we’ve set our standards of where we need to be.

“Obviously we qualified for cup competitions through finishing in the top four but I’m not really one for setting targets.

“Instead, I think we’ve got to see where we are after five or six games – or maybe halfway – and go from there.

“You don’t want to aim too high because, if you don’t get there, you run the risk of feeling like you’ve let yourself down.”