Maldon & Tiptree target promotion as owners transform club

Barrie Drewitt-Barlow and his partner Scott bought Maldon & Tiptree in February

Manager Kevin Horlock has warned his Maldon & Tiptree squad they will "have a target on their backs" next season following major investment by the club's owners.

The eighth-tier Jammers, who finished 13th in Isthmian League North Division last term, were bought by the Drewitt-Barlow Organisation in February from Richard Cowling, brother of Colchester United owner Robbie.

And chief executive and co-owner Barrie Drewitt-Barlow has challenged former Manchester City, West Ham and Ipswich midfielder Horlock to win the title in 2025-26, the first full season of his second spell in charge.

"With the budget we've had and the players we've got in the building and the backing we've got off Barrie and Scott (Drewitt-Barlow), for me it's got to be champions," Horlock told BBC Essex.

"We'll still take it if we get promoted through the play-offs, of course. Anything less than that would be a step forward position-wise for the club but it would be failure with everything we've been given."

As well as renovating the club's 20-acre stadium, the owners have already transformed Horlock's squad with six new signings brought in.

They include forward Freddie Sears, who was still a teenager when he marked his Premier League debut for West Ham United with a goal in a 2-1 win over Blackburn Rovers in March 2008.

Sears' career also took him to Crystal Palace, Ipswich Town and Colchester United and now 35, he has joined Maldon & Tiptree after scoring 21 goals for Chatham Town last season.

Kevin Horlock began his managerial career with Chatham Town in 2015

Horlock won 32 international caps for Northern Ireland during his career and guided Maldon & Tiptree to the play-offs when he was first manager from 2016-18.

He left then-National League North club Needham Market in February to drop two levels and return to The Jammers following the takeover in what the Drewitt-Barlow Organisation said was a "multi-million pound deal".

The 52-year-old said: "Players I bring in have got to be good enough to go on a journey with us. It isn't just this year, it's the bigger picture - we want to get out of this division and we've got the budget to match that.

"I needed players to come in with the ability, but with that composure, and that know-how to handle the pressure because we've got a target on our backs, there's no doubt about that.

"People are going to want us to fall flat on our face and teams are going to raise their game to try and beat us."

Maldon & Tiptree only lost three of the 13 games which Horlock was in charge for at the end of last season, but the new owners want silverware in 2025-26.

"I don't want to finish number two or number three - I want to finish at the top of the league and I want that automatic up," said Barrie Drewitt-Barlow, who along with ex-husband Tony became known as Britain's first gay dads after fathering a twin boy and girl through surrogacy.

He has been working to make the club a 'community hub', which he says is delivering a six-fold increase in revenue.

"I'm just dangling my foot in this at the moment. The potentials are there.

"What I can say is that we've made more money in the last two months than the club has made in the whole of the last year, which means it was very under-used previously."