FORMER boss Dave Mogg believes Yate Town's triumphant end to the 2010/11 season was a sign of the young side he built coming to fruition.

Mogg also insists he should still be in charge of the Zamaretto Division One South & West side after working hard to keep the squad together during financial difficulties with players' wages being deferred.

The former Bath City goalkeeper faced the unenviable task of replacing popular boss Richard Thompson during the 2009/10 season and had to deal with a player exodus following relegation from the Southern League Premier Division before building a new squad virtually from scratch.

After two years in charge, Mogg was sacked in February with the team lying in the bottom four of the table and the reins were handed over to player-coach Rob Cousins, who oversaw a strong finish to the season, which included lifting the Gloucestershire Senior Challenge Cup with a 3-2 win over Cheltenham Town Reserves in the final.

However, Mogg believes he could have enjoyed similar success if given more time.

He said: "I think we're now seeing the fruition of players I took to the club, finding collective form, beating the teams they should beat and losing games they were arguably going to lose anyway.

"It was always left to me to control the players, young players who could develop into players at a higher level.

"I won't get the benefit of working with the players and seeing them improve which is frustrating for me.

"I think if you look at my record prior to getting the sack it's equal to anything since. They have improved no more than if I had stayed.

"Prior to the break at Christmas, we had four wins, four draws and five defeats, scoring 14 and conceding 14, including a very creditable 2-2 draw with Totton where we were very unlucky not to win the game.

"I still believe I should be manager of that football club.”

Mogg, who revealed he paid one player’s wages out of his own pocket, also felt the club could have handled the situation with the players better when a spate of postponed home games in the harsh winter enforced a cashflow problem.

"Over the Christmas period when the problems happened all I asked the club to do was to talk to the players from the offset because they weren't being paid on a weekly basis.

"I think I deserve credit for keeping players at the club because at other clubs they walked out.

"The bottom line is that the players trusted me and I was always up front with them, but it could've been done and dusted three months earlier.

"It was a constant battle trying to keep things under wraps and keep players there.”

Mogg also believes that Yate’s pre-season preparations were affected by the pitch not being ready, which led to them playing friendlies against lower division clubs.

He said: “We couldn't get onto our pitch until a week before the season so attracting any Football League clubs was very difficult.”