Worcester City captain Aaron Roberts believes there are reasons to be optimistic about the rest of the season with new manager Chris Cornes, despite what has been a difficult season so far.

The 30-year-old defender who is currently suspended after being dismissed for violent conduct against Romulus, spoke exclusively to Worcester News about his first impressions of the former Bewdley Town manager.

"I’m very optimistic about the rest of the season,” admitted the City captain.

"My first contact with him (Cornes) was last week at training, he impressed me then and he seems to know a lot about my game and where my strengths and weaknesses are.

"He’s reassured me he wants to keep me as captain no matter who he brings into the club. He laid down the plan for the rest of the season, and we’re all on the same page which is a good start.

"We’re not daft, we know the season is too far gone to expect miracles, but we need to work on having a settled team. The new lads need to gel with each other and play a string of 10-15 games together to build relationships."

Cornes takes charge of his first game this weekend in the Midland Football League tie with Lichfield after his original debut on the touchline was postponed last Saturday.

Roberts believes that going down the local Worcester route with Cornes will be important and the fans will be able to relate to the new man at the helm.

"Hopefully now that we’ve gone local, it’ll be a start in the upturn of fortune for us because I believe that’s crucial. That’s not me saying going local guarantees success, but I certainly think it’s important."

The lofty expectations after a fourth placed finish last season were justified. The players and fans were expectant, it’s not panned out the way Roberts and his teammates would have liked.

The club captain believes changing too much too soon may have been one of the reasons.

"Going into the new season, we knew after Hanley (Town) and Boldmere (St Michaels) were promoted, it would be us and Lichfield (City) as the favourites for the title," said Roberts.

"It hasn’t panned out like that, I don’t think there’s been one factor behind it, I think there have been a group of reasons.

"We had a tough transition into the new regime after Tim (Harris) left, I feel like they tried to change too much too quick, and we have lost some players who still should be here to this day.

"When the upheaval of player departures and purchases came around I originally thought it was what we needed because of the poor start, but three weeks down the line I was starting to think it wasn’t.

"We went from being introduced to the new management and told it was a clean slate for everyone, to nine new players coming in on the Saturday. We’d go into games not knowing some of the lads' names, it was Sunday League standard at times."