DEFIANT Billericay Town manager Craig Edwards insists he is already planning for next season after his side's relegation was confirmed on Saturday.
A late defeat at Weston-super-Mare saw the Blues relegated from the Blue Square Bet South after just one season in the second tier of non-league football.
It is the first time in his managerial career that Edwards has suffered relegation, but Edwards is keen to stay at New Lodge and bring the club back from the Ryman Premier.
"I've already done a season more at this club than any other club and I feel that this is my club," he told the Gazette. "I've always felt so at home at the club.
"We've had a terrible disappointment after two great years. I feel more at home at this club than any other club I've been at.
"Because we've had a massive disappointment, it's made me more determined to go and do well next year because I've got a lot of feeling for the club.
"I've got no ambition to manage anywhere else."
The Blues have won just three games in 2013 and have lost their last five in a row to lose their status, and Edwards admits it is a bitter pill to swallow.
"I'm absolutely devastated," he added. "I never thought it would happen but it unfortunately has and we have to learn from it and come back stronger.
"It's the first time I've been relegated but anyone who knows me will know what a fighter I am and I'll come back stronger. I will learn from it.
"Ultimately, we haven't been strong enough on or off the pitch, hopefully we'll learn lessons from this season and come back stronger."
Having won the Ryman Premier last season, Edwards knows what to expect when his side return to the division next year – and he is already making plans for the make-up of his squad.
"I started looking on Sunday," he said. "I was preparing for next season, that's the truth. I was making calls, going through.
"We do things as professionally as we can on the pitch.
"We've got millions of stats in all sorts of different aspects of the game.
"I've analysed them all day and made calls to people who I think will help us next year.
"We're looking at every area on and off the pitch as a club where we can improve from this year."
Edwards' men were back in action at Farnborough last (Tuesday) night and finish their campaign against Maidenhead on Saturday.
And Edwards is determined to finish the season on a high – and hopes to climb up one more place in the standings.
He added: "There's always the fight to move up a place. It's out of our hands but we'll try and win the last two games.
"We'll give a couple of lads an opportunity to show what they've got because it's a good opportunity for that but we want to win the games.
"We want to finish third-bottom because I don't think since its inception that the third-bottom team has ever gone down from Conference South.
"It looks this year that they will to be fair, but while there's a flicker of hope we'll fight for it."
