RENFREW co-manager Colin Clark admits that next seasons aim is to avoid relegation at all cost, however, he isn’t ruling out the prospect of back-to-back promotions.

Clark and Martin Ferry guided the Frew to the Central District First Division title last season, securing the clubs return to the Super League First Division after a year away.

The pair now face the daunting challenge of avoiding a second relegation in three seasons, a prospect that Clark doesn’t want to see become a reality.

He said: “First and foremost, we need to consolidate our place in the league, it’s a very hard league to play in and at the end of the day four teams will go down.

“Out of the 14 teams in the league I’d say six or seven will be fighting to avoid the drop and we could one of those teams.

“So our aim is to insure that we aren’t in one of those the relegation places come the end of the season.”

Clark added: “Having said that, if we start well and settle into the league as fast as possible then who knows our aim may change.

“If we get off to a good start, then I’d say it would be more than likely that we’d be in the mix for promotion.

“However, for now the aim is to stay in the league and that’s what I’m focusing on achieving next season.”

Colin Clark and Martin Ferry were at the helm the last time Renfrew suffered relegation and Clark admit it still leaves a bad taste in his mouth to this day.

He said: “It was only a year or two ago that we got relegated from this league so we know what it feels like to have that happen.

“The taste of relegation stays with you so we don’t want to go through it again, we don’t want to reopen the wounds of past seasons by getting relegated again that’s for sure.

“I believe we have what it takes to avoid the drop, however, we need to do the business on the park to make sure that happens.”

In a bid to prepare the squad for the challenges that lie ahead the Frew management team have arranged a testing set of pre-season fixtures.

Including a home tie with Super League Premier Division runners-up Hurlford United as well as a game against 2016 Scottish Junior Cup winners Beith.

Clark said: “We’ve set up some tough pre-season game to get the squad ready for the step up in quality they’ll face in the First Division.

“We’ll be playing Hurlford and recently-crowned Junior Cup champions Beith as well as Tower Hearts Under-21 side.

“None of these games are going to be easy, they’ll all be a real challenge for our boys and that’s exactly what I want ahead of the new season.”

Elsewhere on the Junior scene, Arthurlie continued to grow their squad as they announce the completion of three more signings.

The Barrhead club took to social media to reveal the arrival of Ryan Deas from Irvine Meadow as well as the news that they had brought in Jordan Chisholm from Petershill and Kevin Macklin from Blantyre Victoria.

On a sadder note, tributes have been paid to former centre-back Mark Ritchie following the junior stars passing at the weekend.

St Roch’s tweeted: “Our thoughts are with the family of Mark Ritchie, who died suddenly at the weekend.

“Mark played for the club on two separate spells. RIP.”

While St Anthony’s wrote: “The club are shocked at the passing of former centre-half Mark Ritchie at the weekend.

“Mark was a great guy and will be sadly missed #rip”