Title tilt to banish hoo-doo

FC United of Manchester manager Karl Marginson believes he must improve his FC United squad to banish their Evo-Stik Northern Premier League promotion hoo-doo.

Marginson told the Manchester Evening News on Wednesday that he is not giving up after losing three successive Premier Division finals. He is planning to go again come August with an improved squad and said the best way to end the frustration for fans was to make sure they've won the title by this time next year.

Speaking to the paper's website on Wednesday after their 2-1 defeat at Hednesford Town in yet another losing final last weekend, he said: "We'll look to strengthen. We have dropped silly points this season. I can think of 15 points that we have dropped that we shouldn’t have.

"If we had picked up those points we'd have won the championship. We need to be looking at winning titles. But we also need a little bit of luck, we certainly didn’t get any on Saturday. People will say that you make your own luck, but we have certainly been missing it."

FC United striker Mike Norton has missed out on promotion via the play-offs for the seventh consecutive season after his spell with Curzon Ashton. Like his manager, he highlighted costly mistakes.

"It's same old, same old for me," Norton told the paper's website. "I had it for four years with Curzon and now for three years with FC. The squad is decent, but we have cost ourselves on a few occasions. We had a spell in March where we lost two on the bounce then drew two on the bounce, where we just conceded stupid goals."