Coyle believes there is "plenty of mileage" in his team - and expects them to get better and better

The Seasiders' young squad finished tenth in the Thurlow Nunn League premier division, eclipsing the Seasiders' previous best position of 15th.

Overall, it was a year of real progress and the team finished with a flourish, recording back-to-back home wins and clean sheets in both.

Coyle admitted delighted and fully expects his talented group to "push on" in the 2016/17 campaign.

“I was really pleased and proud of where we finished and it’s a reflection of our whole season," said the Seasiders boss.

“It’s always good to finish with a couple of wins and it stays in people’s minds.

“Our players will go away now forgetting that we’ve lost five of the last seven – they’ll just concentrate on the fact we won two of our last two.

“That will keep them in good spirits, knowing we’ve ended on a high.

“And if the right people are here next season, I don’t see any reason why we can’t finish even higher.

“In seven years of being a manger, I’ve never had a season where the team have finished lower than the year before.

“I’ve only ever finished higher and I don’t expect that to change – otherwise I’d be going backwards.

“I expect us to get better and I expect people to want to come and play for Clacton.

“I’m hopeful we can push on off the back of the last couple of weeks.

“So too our young lads and the fact is we’ve got some really good players.

“We’ve got four players aged 27 and all the others are under 23.

“There’s a lot of years and mileage left in this team and that’s another reason why they’ll only get better, if everyone sticks together. It bodes well."

Coyle believes there are areas where the team still need to strengthen.

And he believes that if that is possible, and he can keep his existing squad together, the team can hit the ground running when the next Thurlow Nunn League campaign kicks off in August.

“There are a couple of areas where we need to strengthen and I think that with a couple of additional players – and if we’d been able to keep a couple of players a bit longer – we’d have finished sixth or seventh," he said.

"Without a shadow of doubt.

“We’ve got to look hard at who we want to bring in and whether we’re able to do that, then look to hit the ground running in July and August."