CAPTAIN Michael Farley believes the future is in good hands at Radcliffe.

The Racecourse men have been through some tough times in recent years both on and off the field.

Financial pressures have seen them decide to go without a club professional in the last three seasons and work hard to cut costs and raise money to reduce long-standing debts.

They have also struggled compared with the standards the club have traditionally produced on the field.

Due to a production line of good players leaving over recent years, they were left with home-grown local lads who started life in the third tier of the Greater Manchester League two years ago.

They were relegated in their first season, promoted in their second and are currently bottom of the Greater Manchester League Division Two B after Saturday's seven-run defeat at Austerlands.

But Farley says there are clear signs of progress being made as the work to raise the profile of the club in the town and build a team starts to pay of.

"We must have had 150 watching us in our T20 game against our Radcliffe neighbours East Lancashire Paper Mill recently," he said.

"It was great to see, especially because there were so many new faces on the ground.

"There's a good feeling around the club, better than there's been for a few years.

"All the lads get on really well together and there are a lot of players in the first team who have come through the ranks at the club.

"They're nearly all local lads from Radcliffe and they want to play for the club and do well for Radcliffe.

"It's a very young side, six players are under 20 and the oldest is Jimmy Dixon who's only 30.

"They are there because they deserve to be. They are not just there to make up the numbers. They bat well up the order.

"On Saturday I was so proud of the lads for their effort in a really close game.

"We had a lad, Mushy Shah, who opened the batting who's only just turned 16.

"He only got nine but he faced 62 balls against their South African overseas and he didn't look out of place.

"And Callum Malcolm is 19 and batted at four, scoring 25 and facing 64 balls.

"Both batted really well, we just let them get a few too many on the board down the order.

"But there's progress and it's great to see the young players coming through.

"A lot of work has gone into developing the juniors over the last few years and seeing a number of them coming through into the first team on merit shows the future is bright at Radcliffe."

Radcliffe are at home to Edenfield on Saturday.