It may be the highest level in the club’s history but when Potters Bar Town kick-off their historic Bostik Premier Division campaign they are won’t be just happy to be there.

Bar hotshot Michael Murray, who will combine his playing role with that of a coach this season, is adamant that the club can flourish at step three.

And as he told the Potters Bar Edition after a rain swept pre-season friendly with Hadley, they are not going into the league just to make up the numbers.

He said: “We’re going to try and get as high as we can. For me we’re not coming in just to stay clear of relegation, not at all.

“I want to get higher than mid-table and my personal take on it is [manager] James Duncan will want to be mid-table at Christmas and see where we can go from there.

“The boys are a great bunch, I’ve never played with a set like it. They are really encouraging in every way, really nice lads.

“And after last season they deserve the chance to prove they can play at this level.

“We believe in them but they need to believe in themselves as well.”

Murray took charge of team affairs on Friday night at the New River Stadium in Haringey with Duncan and director of football away on scouting missions.

Ben Ward-Cochrane’s first-half strike was the difference between the two teams although both had opportunities to add to the score-line, Scholars goalkeeper Greg Marsh in particular making some fine saves.

And Murray was pleased with how things went.

“It went alright,” he admitted. “The most important thing at this stage of the season is getting minutes into the boys.

“Formations are irrelevant at the moment but as we play more games we’ll start to develop different ideas as we will need to adapt this season to more than one formation.”

He is also revelling in his new position of player-coach, although he still wants to pull on the jersey this year.

He said: “It’s going to be an interesting one. I think I’m ready to step up [into coaching] but I’m also not ready to completely hang the boots up just yet.

“I still believe I have something to offer but we’ll see how it goes.

“This was the first time [in charge of a game] but David Murphy and Mick Johnson were there too.”