ST ASAPH City manager Daniel Brewerton has been reflecting on the “most challenging” season of his fledgeling career so far.

It proved to be an eventful season on and off the pitch for the Saints, who suffered more than their fair share of injuries and also saw their pitch and club facilities decimated by floods earlier this year.

After a sterling effort from volunteers and officials, the club looks on course to meet new Tier 3 regulations implemented by the Football Association of Wales next term.

Brewerton admitted the season had been “one he learnt the most from” and he holds high hopes about what his squad can achieve next season with a few additions.

He said: “Looking back and reflecting on the season just gone I can’t help but be really disappointed, as a club we had made big strides off the field with everything getting put in place for the new stand, and we had a big overhaul within the club’s philosophy as we looked to bring in some of the best young player’s from the area and developed them within the reserve system to work towards becoming the future of the first team.

“I also felt we recruited to the first team squad well, in my first season we managed our highest ever league position and we planned to take that a bit further again.

“We started off reasonably well, we had difficult four fixtures to begin with, but I was pleased with our performances but towards the end of August things started to go badly for us. It began with Matty Morris suffering a double break away at Prestatyn Sports and seemed to snowball from there.

“Players were picking up long term injuries, we had some very harsh red cards which caused suspensions and then the final straw was losing our captain to Denbigh Town in mid-October. After that it just became a fight for survival every week, we were forced to play injured players a lot of the time as well as calling on the reserve players most weeks, but that’s how things can go in football and we just had to roll up our sleeves and get on with it.”

Despite their relative struggles in Brewerton’s second campaign at the helm, the team did show signs of life before the domestic season was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. This gives the Saints’ boss plenty of encouragement ahead of the incoming changes to the pyramid structure.

“We were starting to see lads coming back from injury and getting match fit again,” added Brewerton.

“I know we would have finished the season well, but it hopefully gives us a platform to start to build again. The core of this squad is fantastic and if we can find the right lads that share the same mentality to add to it then we’ll soon be back to where we wanted to be.

“It was without a doubt my most challenging season in football at any level but it’s one that has taught me the most.”