The defending champions bounced back from the disappointment of losing the Berks & Bucks Intermediate Cup to Reading YMCA by moving into the quarter finals with a 1-0 win against Newbury Town on Saturday. But Bateman says he is remaining focused on claiming the Hellenic League Division One East championship.

The Sumas are currently one place and one point behind leaders Brackley Town Development, although they have four games in hand and could take over at the top if they beat Finchampstead at Henley Town tomorrow night (Thursday, 7.45pm ko).

Bateman told the News: “It would be nice to make history and our priority is to get over the line in the league. It would be great to win it – Wokingham & Emmbrook have never won a league title so it would be nice to be the first ones to do that.

“The club is looking to move in the right direction and winning league titles does that.

“We’ve got no doubt that the squad of players are good enough and it’s just about tranferring that out on to the pitch.” He continued: “If you’d said to me in the middle of March it’s completely in your own hands, I’d have been delighted. We’ve got a couple of games where we could afford to slip up but we won’t be taking the pressure off. We want to win our next four or five games and get the job done.

“It’s not going to be easy but we’ve only got one away game at Woodley and the rest have all got to come here which they’re not going to like. We need to make sure we capitalise on that.” Bateman expects neighbouring Finchampstead to be desperate to derail the Sumas title bid, but is confident his side can deliver.

He admitted: “They’ll be up for it, I’m sure – they always are when they play us. It’s always a close game with a lot of tempo and passion.

“We’ll be looking to get three points to keep pushing on and I think we need to get four or five more wins to get over the line.” And the manager added he wants his side to defend the Senior Cup, potentially defeating former Sumas’ boss Roger Herridge’s Binfield side in a Madejski Stadium final.

He said: “It would be a massive final but there’s still a long way to go. We’ve got to get through a quarter and a semi, they’ve got a tough semi against Henley so that won’t be easy for them. Who knows, but it would be a nice way to cap it off.

“We always said the league was our priority but we do have an affection with this cup and it would be nice to win it again.” Wokingham & Emmbrook visit Easington Sports in the Bluefin Sport Supplementary Cup on Saturday (3pm).