BUDE player/coach, Angus Hodges, says a top-three finish is the minimum he expects from his side as they look to gain promotion from the Tribute Cornwall and Devon League.

The North Cornwall club finished fifth in 2017/18 following relegation from the Tribute Western Counties (West) division and Hodges wants them to aim high after a year of consolidation.

They start their preparations with a training exercise with the first team squad at Launceston on Tuesday night (7.30pm) before taking on Wadebridge Camels next Saturday and then Essex-based club Hornchurch in their final pre-season friendly on August 25.

They start their league campaign with a trip to Tavistock on September 1 before welcoming promoted Topsham to Bencoolen Meadow a week later.

Hodges admits that numbers haven’t been great at training so far but is looking forward to getting started.

He said: “We’ve been back since the first week of July and we’ve been doing a lot of conditioning games and match scenarios and not focusing too much on the fitness-based stuff. We’re trying to get people to think a bit more and make it more enjoyable.

“However numbers have varied between 12 and 20 which has been a bit limiting with patterns and stuff but the boys who have turned up have made really good progress.”

Hodges and his players make the short trip to Polson Bridge on Tuesday night and believes that the fact the scheduled game has now been switched to a more skills-based session suits them ahead of their trip to Wadebridge Camels, who play in the league above.

He said: “We’re going to do our own warm-ups and then work together on the different aspects with the forwards and backs. To be honest I don’t think we’re ready for a full game quite yet so that gives us a chance to think about it quite a bit more. I’m sure that the boys will be making every effort to get down to Launceston for it though!

“We also have a game next Saturday at Wadebridge so it’s a benefit to me to be able to go through things a bit slower and make sure we get them right!”

“Once we get to Wadebridge they’ll be a really good test for us to see where we’re at, we want to be in the top three and playing them will highlight some weaknesses for us to work on in the first half of the season.”

Hornchurch will provide the opposition for their only pre-season home game and Hodges hopes for a good performance.

He said: “Apparently they’re at a similar level to us so we see is it as our first proper game. I’m not expecting a great deal at Wadebridge but against Hornchurch we’ll be looking to win that as it’s more of a season test.

“We want to see how we deal with what we need to work on at Wadebridge and finalise our plans for the first league game!”

Bude have been known for their forwards-based style over the years but Hodges is looking to continue from where they left off in the spring.

He said: “I really want it to be a rolling couple of seasons where there’s no divide between the two seasons so that we carry on from where we left off and not have to keep going over stuff, so the aim is to finalise it.

“In the last few games last season we put together some really good performances and we’d like to move on from there and focus on the next job which is looking at how our open play develops, how we assess their defence and how we tackle that second or third phase to create something from it, which is what we’ve been working on along with support work and creating space!”

The club looks to be much as the same with last year with just one notable absentee.

Hodges said: “I don’t think we’ve lost anyone apart from hooker Liam Cook, who won’t be playing, which is a bit of a shame. We’ve got a couple of youngsters having a looking at things, but I’d like to think we’ll have the same sort of squad as last year and it’d be nice to have them around again.”

If that’s the case, Hodges is bold in his predictions.

He said: “Finishing in the top three is the minimum. We came fifth last year despite a dodgy start, so if we can hit the ground running we should be looking for promotion this year.

“I don’t look at the opposition too much. I’m just conscious of focusing on our own game and if we try and adapt to the opposition I don’t think we’ll be as good, especially while we’re trying to establish our own style of play which is getting there!”

Before midway through last season, Bude had plenty of away day troubles and Hodges knows that’s likely to be a deciding factor.

He said: “The real test will be our away games. Towards the beginning of last season we struggled on our travels as we had before, and although we turned it around, it’ll be interesting to see whether that comes back or whether we’ve got rid of it good.

“But if we start like we finished last year then we should be in most of the games.”