Plym Vic may not have claimed a Devon Two win in the 2015/16 season but they did beat their neighbours DHSOB in a non-league match and reached the Ellis Trophy final.

And they could not have come closer to winning some silverware. They had two kicks to win the Ellis Trophy but agonisingly missed them to narrowly lose 17-15 to Devonport Services IIIs.

“Things are going all right,” said Phillips, about pre-season. “The boys are upbeat and training hard.

“I’ve got back-up on the coaching side now. Colin Robertson came across from Oaks. He had some of his army guys come down and do an afternoon session at the weekend, which was good.”

He added: “We had a good end to last season. We reached the Ellis Cup final and we should have won that. We were in the driving seat and had chances.

“I was going through that second half and thinking ‘we can do this’ and that was the attitude everyone had, but one kick bounced off the crossbar and then we had a penalty right at the end but the sun was going down and just caught our lad in the eye as he kicked.

“But the boys now realise they are capable of scoring.”

Phillips, though, has been in the game long enough not to make any predictions ahead of the new season, which will see OPMs and St Columba/Torpoint joining them in a strong-looking Devon Two.

“I don’t do targets,” said Phillips, whose side along with the rest of the Devon One and Two teams will start the season with a new cup competition – the David Butt Cup. That will take up the first six weeks of the campaign before the league games start on November 5.