CONNOR Natella accepted the manager’s job at New Milton Town and suggested he would not have landed the same role at another club.

Previously assistant at Fawcett’s Field, the 21-year-old was promoted to the hot seat after boss Callum Brooks departed just two games into the Sydenhams Wessex One season.

And former Cherries coach Natella, who earned his first coaching badge at 14 years old, explained that he was confident of a positive spell in charge – despite his tender years.

He told the Daily Echo: “I think whether you experience success or not as a young manager depends on the way you go about it.

“If you go in and think that you’ve got all the answers then you are on a hiding to nothing because you haven’t got all the answers.

“You have to accept your limitations. My job is to work with a group of players to try and get them to meet their potential. The chairman and the players have backed me to do it and I back myself to do it as well.

“I don’t think I’d have got this chance at another club and it’s good that I already have a relationship with the players as I’ve been coaching them for the past year or so.”

Natella was coy on his exact hopes for the campaign ahead but did admit that an improvement on last season’s sixth-placed finish would leave him pleased.

Asked where he hoped his team would end up, Natella said: “It’s not really for me to say at the moment because we are coming into something fairly new.

“Progress is what I’m about. It’s about trying to be better than we were last season.

“I do believe the group is good enough to be at the top end of the table and we would be delighted with a top-five finish because that would be progress.

“Ultimately, it’s about building something that’s going to last.”

Previous boss Brooks, who holds a coaching role at Poole Town, had indicated his desire to field younger players and utilise the loan market sparingly in 2015-16, a philosophy which Natella is keen to continue.

He added: “We will use one or two loan players because they are good quality players but I don’t think that can form the core of your group. You have got to have character.

“Last year we didn’t beat anyone in the top five. There is a reason we finished sixth and that is because we didn’t have the character to get across the line in games against the top sides. Hopefully, we will get to a point where we’ve got a bit more of that.”

Natella’s first game in charge will be at home to Hythe & Dibden on Saturday.