Nuneaton head to Conference North after four seasons spent in the top-level of non-league football. Having enjoyed a quite brilliant previous campaign when they were genuine play-off contenders until the last month, things were looking much gloomier for the Midlands side in the close season. Brian Reid had been given the job at the tail end of the previous season but seemed clueless and unprepared for the challenges ahead, failing to assemble a good squad with an admittedly limited budget. A lot of players were to join only just before the start of the season, while the departure of players like Louis Moult and Wes York seriously dented the attacking edge of the season. A 3:0 loss at the hands of Eastleigh at the start was a harbinger for what was to come and a 4:0 battering taken at the hands of Torquay soon after that showed that Boro are on the wrong path. Reid was constantly chopping and changing but it was clear that he was out of his depth. Still, it was a bit of a surprise when he was sacked at the start of September, less than a month into the season. Nuneaton managed to woo an excellent manager at non-league level in Liam Daish as his replacement and he seemed like the right man to save them from relegation. But he was forced into assembling a good squad over the course of the season and found some of the damage inflicted earlier too difficult to repair. His impressive start, two wins from the first four games in charge, quickly faded as the deficiencies showed up too often, especially on the road. A quite dreadful 5:0 loss away at Dover in late November really hammered home how bad the situation was, with Nuneaton already some 15 points off the safety places and second from bottom. Some good loan additions, especially Adam Dawson and Christian Dibble, bolstered the quality in the squad but good results were still far too hard to come by. Nuneaton looked dead and buried at the bottom after four defeats without scoring at the start of 2015. However, Boro deserve credit for giving it a very good go for the rest of the season and going on a superb run from February on towards the start of April. A shock 2:1 win away at Gateshead kick-started a stunning seven-game unbeaten run in which they kept six clean sheets. The back four was now solid and assured, the midfield working hard, and the attackers making the most of their chances. The gap towards the safety places was cut to a mere three points by late March and there was genuine hope ahead of the final six games of the season. But that massive effort in the previous two months took too much from the squad and four losses in a row in the subsequent games, eventually ended their challenge for survival. Daish leaves at the end of the season but he deserves credit for making the side a competitive one despite all the difficulties they faced. It will be a fresh start next season, with Kevin Wilson the new man in charge, and Boro will be aiming for an instant return.
