LYDNEY Town boss Mark Lee wants his bruised and busy side to finish a successful season on a high note, starting with a historic cup final.

Town reached the GFA Challenge Trophy final last week after overcoming Cheltenham Saracens on penalties in the final four – the first time the club has made a county cup final at this level.

The Challenge Trophy is the second-highest county honour, behind the Senior Challenge Cup competed in by the likes of Gloucester City, Cheltenham Town’s reserves and Cinderford Town.

Lydney will take on either Cirencester Town Development or Bristol Manor Farm, who have their semi-final this evening, at Almondsbury on Thursday April 21 – another game to add to a busy period.

“It’s been a really hectic schedule at the moment,” Lee said.

“We had four games in eight days leading up to the Thatcham game, which we were really unfortunate not to hold on to.

“I think a draw against Binfield was a fair result but it was just a mudbath. The conditions were just awful.

“We don’t know when the postponed quarter-final against Thame is going to be yet either.”

Town have managed to reach two quarter finals in league cup competitions despite limited striking options, and Lee praised the work of Pete Macklin who has stepped up with Jarred Liddington injured.

“I think Jarred’s out for the season; he’s come back a couple of times and broken down,” Lee added.

“That’s meant there’s been more impetus on Pete who has done really well for us.

“We haven’t had a lot of strikers available so we have changed shape a bit to play to his strengths but the number of games has taken its toll on him too.

“Myself and Stu have been banging on saying how big the GFA is. It’s a huge deal for the club as we’ve never reached the final at this level with the Challenge Trophy.

“It was disappointing to lose in the Hellenic Supplementary Cup final last year and I always think if you can get over the line once it breeds that winning mentality going forward.

“The cup final keeps the season alive. We set the target of 40 points to stay up and we’ve done that, so we’re setting new targets.

“We want to catch and overtake Longlevens because that’ll make us the highest of the three promoted clubs from our league.

“I think we’ve done enough to stay up. Never say never, but that 40 points has been enough to keep sides up in the past.

“We still need a couple more wins to be totally secure but we can’t rest on our laurels and it’s nice to finish on a high note with confidence. It’s been a fairly good season all in all.”