SHOTTERMILL & Haslemere FC expect to be playing as a Combined Counties League team next season.

Changes to the pyramid structure of non-league football means that the Surrey Senior League has agreed to form Division One of the CCL from next season.

Teams will have the chance of winning promotion to the Premier Division, where they would play alongside the likes of AFC Wallingford, Withdean, Ash United, Farnham Town and the newly formed AFC Wimbledon.

Shottermill, despite their current basement position in the Surrey Senior League, have been told their place is assured and are taking a positive view of the move.

The only senior club in Haslemere, formed by the merger of Shottermill FC and Haslemere FC, 'Mill hope the distinction of playing in the highly regarded Combined Counties League will have a knock-on effect when it comes to recruiting players and team managers.

"We will have to pull our socks up," said chairman Gwyn Williams. "We see it as a step-up because the Combined Counties is a well organised league and there will be a certain prestige to playing in this new division, even if it means playing against the same teams."

Shottermill have had mixed fortunes since they took the brave decision to leave the Surrey Intermediate League in search of a higher standard of football.

They had two or three successful years in the Surrey Premier League, but its metamorphosis back to the Surrey Senior League heralded a very lean spell for the Woolmer Hill-based club.

'Mill finished bottom last season and are on course to make it an embarrassing double this campaign unless results pick up and their undeniably wretched luck takes a turn for the better.

Gwyn Williams has witnessed the club's changing fortunes and has no doubt where the trouble lies.

"When we were doing well in the Premier League, we had John Brawn and Paul Nash playing up front for us. Brawn was a 50-goals-a-season man and between them they were scoring around 80 a season. But they've stopped playing and we've not really replaced them. We've had some good young players, but they tend to drift off into intermediate football."

'Mill have scored just 22 this season, with eight points from 22 matches and only two wins. But a few victories could change everything. The teams above them, Cranleigh, Croydon MO and Seelec Delta, are all within reach.

Shottermill face competition from local intermediate clubs such as Hammer United, Liphook and Chiddingfold, but there are other reasons for their problems. The approach to training is apathetic, despite the best efforts of coaches Andy Metcalfe and Andy Wyciechowski, and 'Mill have been unable to attract an experienced manager. "Player-manager Anthony Clarke has done as good a job as we can expect," Williams was quick to say.

The club are still able to field three sides each Saturday. Next season, they plan to enter the second and third teams into the Guildford & Woking Alliance, with the reserves, hopefully, soon finding their level in the Premier Division.

The chairman and his committee anticipate a change in attitude, and the way the club is perceived by other players, with the kudos of competing in the Combined Counties.

The CCL Premier Division is, after all, only four steps from the Conference, with teams eligible for the FA Cup and FA Vase if their facilities are up to standard.

Woolmer Hill is a long way from having floodlights, but it's a start. Despite the lean times of recent seasons, Gwyn Williams and Shottermill & Haslemere still have a vision...