BOSS Rob Hopkins has set New College a two-tier target for the remainder of the season as he aims to push the students on to greater things.

College have accrued 15 points so far in 2013/14 and are 11th out of 15 teams in the Hellenic League Division One West table.

That is just four points less than the 19 points they managed in the whole of last season but some way off the 40 they totalled in 2011/12.

Hopkins, who has now finished teaching at New College but is still coaching at the academy, is positive on his team’s prospects for 2013.

“It’s been an inconsistent year so far but that’s what we do. It’s always going to be that way with lads moving on and coming in,” said Hopkins.

“We had a good start which surprised us as we thought it would take seven or eight games to get into our stride, then we had a lull in September and October before picking up over the last couple of weeks.

“We’re in a better position now than we were last season, so hopefully we can push on to where we should be in midtable by the end of the season.

“If we remain competitive then hopefully we’ll beat last year’s target and the next thing is to see if we can get close to the points we got in our first year in the Hellenic.

“We know we aren’t going to challenge for the top two or three because of the changing nature of the side and as long as we’re not in the bottom three we tend to be happy.

“We should be looking to finish midtable and anything higher than that would be overachieving.

“The lads are really working hard in training now, we had a couple of lulls in mid-season where they probably weren’t applying themselves, but we reminded them of what they needed to do and they upped their work rate and effort.

“They are always looking forward to games and that’s a good thing.”

College are scheduled to take on Purton at the Webb’s Wood Stadium tonight but the match could be in doubt due to the weather.

Swindon Supermarine - who College groundshare with - had their home game against Didcot called off on Saturday and the weather forecast is not favourable for today Hopkins said: “Looking at the weather that has come in and the forecast for Monday, I’d say that there’s probably no chance.

“We will prepare for the game as if it is on but I know the pitch was very waterlogged on Saturday so it’s unlikely to go ahead.”