SCOTT Dundas believes Witton Albion’s players need to feel good about playing football again before they can start to think about a bid for promotion.

The former Norton United boss, appointed as manager last week, told the Guardian it is too early to talk of a title bid following the Northwich club’s relegation from the Northern Premier League’s top flight.

His first challenge is to lift the mood of a group that lost five of their final half-dozen matches before tumbling through the Premier Division trapdoor.

“We need to avoid a hangover,” he said.

“That means trying to get confidence back into the lads that stay at the club.

“If there is pressure to be challenging at the top of the table, then I’ll take that on.

“I just want the players to be free to think about what happens out on the pitch. If they’re not enjoying themselves, then that becomes a problem.”

The 41-year-old, who guided Norton to promotion twice during four seasons in charge, does not plan an inquest into why Witton finished inside the table’s bottom four.

Instead, he plans only to look ahead.

“We won’t talk too much about what’s gone on before,” he added.

“It’s gone now, so why dwell on it if we can do nothing to change it? It’s more important that Witton get used to winning matches again regularly.

“The players will understandably be low because the club has gone down, but I don’t believe that makes them bad ones.”

And, as a manager whose side has hit the net more than 350 times in the past four years, it is obvious where his priority will be on the field.

On the two occasions Norton were promoted, they ran up a century of scores.

Dundas said: “The fans will see exciting, attacking football; that means lots of shots, and plenty of goals.

“Football is no fun otherwise.

“It’s important to entertain people who pay to watch the game at this level. I was an attacker myself, so I guess it’s only natural I want my teams to think that way.”

Dundas, who watched from afar as Witton got through three managers during the course of last season, hopes to have time to implement those ideas.

He said: “There is a long-term plan here, but if the club wants genuinely to stabilise then it can’t be changing who is in charge every six months.

“I had opportunities to leave Norton, but stayed loyal and stuck around to finish what I’d started.

“I’d love to get the club back to where it belongs.

“From where I live, in the Potteries, Witton is seen as a big club.

“I can see a lot of parallels with a club I played for, Stafford Rangers, who are also trying to rebuild in the same way Witton will want to next season.

“Whoever is manager here has an equally large job to do. Knowing that only makes me more determined."