WITH New Year upon us, the top local football teams have had varying fortunes in the first half of the season, but what do they hope to achieve for the second chunk of the campaign?

Helston Athletic and Wendron Utd – both newly promoted to the Premier Division and Division 1 West of the SWPL respectively, have had hugely promising seasons so far.

By contrast, Porthleven have endured a turbulent time, but can look forward to a brighter 2016 following the appointment of player-manager Charlie Young.

Falmouth Town have also had a very encouraging first half of their campaign, lying in the top ten of the Premier Division, while neighbours Penryn perhaps have most cause for optimism of all the local clubs in the top two divisions of Cornish football.

They lie third in Division 1 West and are scoring for fun, racking up another five in their Boxing Day win over Illogan to take their goal difference to 49 in 18 league matches and in third place in the table.

Manager Steve Jewell said: “We’re in a good position and we’ll try and win every game between now and the end of the season. It’s a long shot to catch Mousehole but they’ll have a bad spell at some stage so it’s still possible.

“We lost some silly games at the start of the season because we couldn’t always score, but we’re playing a more direct style now and it’s paying off.”

Helston lost the much-anticipated derby at Falmouth on Boxing Day, but boss Sid Taylor remained upbeat: “We’re very disappointed to lose at Falmouth but we set ourselves a target of 50 points before the season started and we’re over halfway there having played half our league matches.

“We’re also in the quarter-finals of the League Cup and the last 16 of the Senior Cup, so I think we can be pleased with how it’s gone so far.”

Falmouth player-manager Andrew Westgarth is delighted with his team’s achievements up to now and has his sights set on qualification for next year’s FA Cup.

Town would need to finish in the top ten of the league – they are currently ninth – and return a points tally of 40 points, which equates to just four more wins from their remaining 21 games.

“The Boxing Day win was fantastic and I’m really pleased because the club hasn’t had much to cheer about in the last three or four years.

“Some people questioned my decision when I took over as manager but I’m loving every minute of it, we’ve had some great wins this year.”

Charlie Davis, sampling life in a higher league as manager of newly-promoted Wendron Utd, has guided his team to eight league wins to date.

“We’re probably overachieving for what everyone has expected from us,” he said.

“We’re very happy with where we are, it’ll be difficult to get into the top six but if we finish seventh, we’ll be delighted. We’re definitely surprising a few people.”