The process of upgrading a squad can boiled to a rather simple principle: bring in better players. It’s rather more subtle than just that, though, and fortunately we’ve been treated to a masterclass in how to manage the process by Phil Parkinson.

Competition for places has been fierce since the takeover, and Parkinson deserves a lot of credit for maintaining the positive squad spirit he has clearly prioritised since his arrival at the SToK Cae Ras.

That competition is not just about squad depth though. It’s also about the transition from one level to another as we look to scale the divisions. Clearly we’ve been looking to bring in players who would be ready to take on a season in the Championship if that’s where we are next season.

Parkinson has executed this process beautifully since he arrived in the National League, as our pursuit of an unprecedented third consecutive promotion clearly proves.

The situation at wing back illustrates my point. In the first half of the season, you’d have pointed to the flanks as one of our strengths. Ryan Barnett was on fire, tearing defences apart and delivering a steady flow of quality crosses, while on the other flank James McClean’s muscular presence was a disruptive factor both with and without the ball.

Throw Seb Revan, Jacob Mendy and Luke Bolton into the equation and you had a heck of a lot of quality in wide positions. Anthony Forde, a classy presence over our two promotion seasons, couldn’t even claim a spot in the squad and had to satisfy himself with cup matches!

Yet when Parkinson brought three players in during the January transfer window, one of them was Ryan Longman. Where would we accommodate him in the team, we wondered.

Usually Longman was deployed as a wide striker, but our system didn’t feature that position. He’d have to be a heck of a player for Parkinson to switch around his entire system of play for, so what role would he fulfil?

It turns out Parkinson looked at our area of strength, and decided it needed strengthening.

It isn’t the obvious approach, but when you have squad depth like we do you look to upgrade rather than fill gaps.

Longman has been a terrific addition to the squad. The quality of his crosses is impressive, he loves taking on defenders and he is technically good. It feels odd to see Barnett on the bench after establishing himself so spectacularly in League One. However, we now have remarkable depth out wide, as was illustrated last Saturday when, faced with a stubborn rearguard action from Burton, we unleashed Barnett and Longman on opposite flanks. Suddenly Albion were penned in, having to cope with Crossmageddon!

Parkinson’s policy of upgrading by stealth has been executed superbly. It’s the reason I’m not going to panic if we don’t manage to go up this time round.

The improvement we enjoy each transfer window means our direction of travel is most definitely upwards, and if we don’t make the leap into the second tier now, logic suggests we’ll make it soon.

In that regard our situation is the same as it was after our only failure to earn promotion under Rob and Ryan so far.

When we lost a wild play-off 5-4 at home to Grimsby in 2022, I ought to have been devastated. After all, a year of effort chasing that longed-for escape from the National League had ended in the most sudden, painful manner possible.

Instead, I was oddly upbeat.

I bumped into Humphrey Ker as I was packing up the commentary kit for another season, and found he felt exactly the same way as me, and for exactly the same reasons.

We both reckoned that, having failed on that occasion, we’d spend the Summer bringing in another tranche of players who would be too good for the league we were in, and would make hay as we won the title the following season.

We were right, although I admit we hadn’t factored Notts County’s phenomenal resistance into the equation.

We’re in a similar situation now. Admittedly, the process of signing players who ought to be playing two levels higher has needed refining. It was possible to attract League One quality players to the club when we were in the National League, but economies of scale have kicked in: we aren’t going to be recruiting Premier League regulars so easily this Summer!

However, the basic premise remains the same. If we don’t go up, we’ll add serious quality to the current squad, which is good enough to get promoted already, and go again.

It would be a fantastic experience, and the thought of it is exciting. I don’t want it to happen though; let’s keep this promotion momentum rolling.