AFTER finding their feet this year, Teignmouth AFC 1st XI manager Liam Jones asserts that his side “can kick on now.”

They faced no end of problems last time around which have seeped into the current SW Peninsula League campaign, primarily the off-field issues at their Coombe Valley ground.

At the beginning of the season, Teignmouth “hadn’t played there for a long time and some of our players had never played there”, explained Jones.

Expanding on this, he said: “We had some reasonable expectations that we would kick on this year after the pain of last year of playing all of our games away from home.

“Getting back to the Valley was something we were looking forward to and yet, we’ve subsequently been excellent away from home but not quite found that form at home, which is disappointing.”

Looking at the Premier East league table and the disappointment is understandable, Teignmouth sit 14th at the time of writing with four wins, zero draws and 10 defeats to their name.

Despite the underwhelming home form that Jones has alluded to, “it’s so good to be back.”

He continued: “The fact that the club is still functioning and still has the ability to go into this season is something of a miracle in and of itself.

“You can’t underestimate the camaraderie that brings and the churn of playing away games is relentless. You finish the game, you get in your car and you drive home, you don’t have the ability to just sit in the clubhouse, build relationships, bed in new players, you really are a bit of a nomadic football club.

“To be back home and have that togetherness and start to build and attract new players, it’s been good.”

Not only were the opening stages of the season hampered by returning to an unfamiliar home but there were headaches to deal with “in attacking areas” for Jones.

“When you don’t quite have the resources, trying to replace a goalscorer is borderline at this level,” explained Jones, with the two answers to their problems now absent.

“We were unfortunate, we had a young lad with us in pre-season, Roger Williams, (Bermudan teen) who is currently on trial with Brentford, so we lost him before the season had even started.

“Then, our centre forward, Jack Towill, got injured in the first game of the season with a serious knee injury, in a bit of a disaster tackle, a clash with the keeper which is not ideal. Scoring goals has then subsequently been a problem, it’s been a problem for us for a few seasons.”

Jones points to positive pre-season performances and the ability to find the back of the net against Western League sides such as Barnstaple Town and Buckland Athletic as their reason for optimism, only for this be snuffed out.

Off the back of that, Teignmouth “have had to adapt the way we’ve set ourselves up compared to pre-season.”

Two of their four league wins thus far have come against sides in and around them, overcoming Axminster Town and Bishops Lydeard to guide themselves away from fears of relegation.

On the other hand, beating a resolute Torridgeside AFC team and an impressive Stoke Gabriel & Torbay Police side are big ticks, Jones highlighting the performance in the latter as a huge source of pride.

“We went to Stoke Gabriel and won, we really showed what we are capable of then.”

In their second game of the season, Teignmouth may have lost to Torrington AFC but on two other occasions, they’ve had the number of the North Devon side.

Away at Torrington, they won by a single goal to advance in the FA Vase and they matched this feat on their travels in the WCP League Cup, winning 3-1 courtesy of goals from Scott Baxter, Harry Breslan and Zak Khadaroo.

Talking of the league cup and on November 29, Teignmouth will welcome Wadebridge Town, a mid-table side from the SWPL Premier West.

The Teignmouth boss is asking the questions about that one, “Can we win that game?

“Can we get ourselves into the quarterfinals and then, really have a right good go at the league too? Apart from the top four or five teams in the league, I think the rest is quite competitive and up for grabs if someone can put a little bit of a run together.”

Moving forward now and the main target for Jones and co is to “remain positive.”

Jones commented, “We know we can compete, it’s just that consistency, can we just get a run of games? As much as there’s that form and confidence and that drumbeat of winning games, it happens when you’re losing games too.

“We’ve been stronger in the last few weeks, not quite got what we’ve wanted out of some games but we just need to remain competitive.”

In the lead up to Christmas, fixtures against the likes of Okehampton Argyle (tomorrow), Torrington, Axminster and Honiton Town present Teignmouth the chance to do just that before they host local rivals Newton Abbot Spurs on Boxing Day.