FC Isle of Man: Ravens' first season a whirlwind, says striker Sean Doyle

Sean Doyle (right) is the Ravens' top goalscorer this season

FC Isle of Man's first season in the North West Counties Football League has been a "whirlwind", the club's star striker has said.

Sean Doyle, who has netted 41 goals, said the team's focus was now firmly on winning promotion from the league's First Division South.

The Ravens will take on New Mills at The Bowl in Douglas, in front of a sell-out crowd of more than 3,000, after finishing second in the table.

The team won 26 out of 39 league games.

Doyle said although the season had "absolutely flown by", the past eight months had been "fantastic from start to finish".

Preparations for the start of the season were hampered by the coronavirus pandemic, and the island's border and isolation restrictions meant the Ravens had to play 16 away games on the bounce, including two cup games.

However, that led to a string of home games in the second half of the season.

Looking back at the season, team manager Chris Bass said although he was "a very difficult man to please in terms of results", the dedication and effort of everyone at the club had been "fantastic".

He said: "We've worked very, very hard to be in this position all year. I think we've done a fantastic job coming from 16th in the league before Christmas to finish in second place."

The Ravens beat New Mills 2-1 when the teams last met in January

Centre-back Alex Maitland praised the "amazing" support the team had been shown by home fans during their fledgling season.

"I think the teams coming across are certainly not used to it, we're certainly not used to it yet, but it's nice that you're on our side. It's just brilliant," he said.

He added he was "excited more than anything… just buzzing," going into the weekend's match.

Reflecting on the team's performance in the league, Doyle said they had always been confident they would be challenging for a place in the top five because "we wouldn't want to play football if that wasn't our ambition".

"But to say that we finished second at the start of the season I would have bitten your hand off, but then looking back at how we've done the second half of the season, I'm kind of disappointed that we haven't been more in contention to win the league with how strong we were," he said.

Maitland agreed the team had "dropped a lot of points at the start of the season, which looking back isn't great".

"But we were all new playing with each other, we didn't have a pre-season because of the circumstances and, considering that, the second half of the season's been immense and hopefully we're going to carry on that form."

Looking ahead to the play-off final, Doyle said: "We've played 39 games now, so we can't be nervous any more, we've got to be excited and look forward to the game, and hopefully the result will take care of itself."

FC Isle of Man take on New Mills at the Bowl at 18:30 BST.