STEVE Devlin hopes that a successful season with Dorchester Town will propel him into the Football League.

The tenacious midfielder spent much of last week on trial at Npower League One club Dagenham & Redbridge, having scored against the Daggers in a pre-season friendly with Dorchester that ended 1-1.

The Essex outfit have yet to make a bid for the former Holt United man but will continue to monitor his progress throughout the season.

In order to complete a remarkable climb up the football ladder – one that would see him leap eight rungs in a year – Devlin is aware that he must maintain his current form.

The 2009/10 Supporters’ Player of the Year said: “Having been at Dagenham you can tell the difference between League clubs and non-League clubs.

“They don’t do a great deal more fitness work than we do here but they train every day so they’re very fit and much sharper.

“I do feel good at the moment and the few days that I was up there for have done me the world of good. I’m back here now and I’ll just carry on playing. Hopefully I’ll play well and keep my place in the team.

“I don’t know what they’ve said to Ashley Vickers but they told me that I need to keep going, play the way I’m playing and then hopefully something will come up.

“Dagenham’s manager John Still said to me before I left that he’d like me go back up perhaps in November when neither team has a mid-week game, as I’d be able to train all week.

“They’ve not said ‘no thanks’, they’ve said that hopefully I’ll be back soon. You always want to be a full-time footballer, so we’ll just see what happens.

“It would’ve been great had they wanted to sign me straight away but I’m just hoping to have a really good season with Dorchester now.”

Looking ahead to the new Blue Square Bet South campaign, and Saturday’s curtain-raiser at Bromley, Devlin is targeting a strong start.

The Magpies recorded just one win from their opening eight games last term – a statistic that Devlin is hoping to avoid this time around.

He added: “We’ve been training hard and this year we all feel really fit and we look really fit as a team.

“Hopefully we’ll start well because the club struggled for the first 10 games or so last season and we didn’t kick on until the second half of the season.

“We’re all in it together and that’s what Ash has brought to the team. We’re raring to go, so bring on Bromley.”