THE 1874 COLUMN - By Matt Waters

AFTER signing for the club in 2017, Jake Parker has been instrumental to 1874 Northwich's style of football, providing plenty of goals and assists over recent years.

He scored 24 goals in last season’s campaign and has said that he wants to better that tally to help 74 get promoted next season.

“I scored quite a few goals in last season’s campaign and I want to pick up from where I left off," he said.

"I felt I had my best season for the club so next year I want to score another 20-30 goals to help us get promoted.

"It’s not just about me though it’s about all of us as a team playing together and working hard.

"We know we should have been at least promoted last season, it was taken off us, but we’re all in it together, we know what we have to do so we have to make sure we go out and do it. Not just for ourselves, but for the fans."

One of the contributing factors for 1874's excellent performances last season was the relationship the players have with each other.

As a club, we are in an extremely fortunate and unprecedented position of having some of our squad with the club for five years.

When speaking to Jake, he believes that is why we have seen such high-performance levels.

“This coming season will be the fifth year for some. For a few of us it will be our fourth and even then, there’s some that have been with us for three years.

"At this level it’s more or less unheard of and we’ve been able to build excellent relationships over time.

"You’ll have seen last season that we all fight for each other on and off the pitch.

"There’s been times where we’ve been down and out in games but we dig deep and pull a result out the bag. That shows the mentality we have and team bonding is crucial to that.”

Looking towards the new season Jake said that he hopes the club performs better across all competitions, especially the FA Vase.

“Last season we went out extremely early in the Vase against Prestwich Heys and we were all disappointed with that," he said.

"We did everything right in that game but couldn’t put the ball in the net, something which was rare for us last season.

"However, this year we have to do better and get further in the competition.

"I was here when the club got to the semi finals and I feel we have grown and improved since then so there’s no reason why we can’t go further again in the competition.

"With the league, we know what we need to do and we will go out once again and do it. We’re all now excited to get started and get some friendlies played now we have a date.”