New Clitheroe manager Phil Brown wants to give Blues fans a team they can be proud of. 

The Shawbridge club finished 18th in the Evo-Stik West last season, only above bottom two Kendal Town and Skelmersdale United.

That saw manager Lee Ashforth move on with Brown, a promotion winner with Lancaster City in 2017, swiftly appointed as his replacement. 

“I’ve only had a couple of hours with the chairman and the board but when we talked through the general aims the plan was to bring a few things together and give the fans a team and football they can be proud of,” said Brown. 

“We need to make the team more competitive than last year. 

“My teams have always been hard working, organised, disciplined and tactically astute with and without the ball. 

“That’s what I’ll be looking for here.”

Brown guided the Dolly Blues to the league title, then known as the Evo-Stik North, before establishing them in the top tier in 2017-18.

The head of football at Myerscough College near Preston left back in September and is relishing getting stuck into his new role. 

“It’s a blank piece of paper to some extent,” said Brown, also a former assistant and caretaker manager of Stockport County. 

“A few might move on for geographical or financial reasons and I don’t want to make any ill-informed decisions about players. There’s a core of good lads here.

“Some of the current group will stay and others will come in, it’s about putting a plan together. 

“I think with the experience I had with Lancaster and even before that I’m confident I can do that to a good level.”

Brown, who will be bringing his former Lancaster assistant Dave McCann to Shawbridge, says analysing Clitheroe's poor campaign last time around is far from straightforward despite just two wins in 2019. 

"They maybe underachieved on paper but when confidence drops it’s easier said than done getting out of a rut," he said.  

"From what I can tell they went through a lot of players and it’s tough when you don’t have that continuity of selection. 

"You could have brilliant players but when you’ve got to change the team every week because of unavailability of whatever it might be it makes things tougher."