Mentality was an issue when Caddis walked through the door in March with a dozen games to go and National League North relegation staring them in the face.

Now, they are fourth in the table, have won five of their last seven games – and perhaps just as significantly, were disappointed that they had to come from a goal down at Merthyr a week ago to earn a point.

That was confirmation of the box ticked.

“The hardest thing in football is to change your mentality,” said Caddis. “We've been trying to change the mentality of the football club since we walked through the door.

“Last year it was difficult. This year we've got our own stamp on it.

“The mentality is so difficult to change, it's so difficult to change the mindset of people who work at the club, people within the club, supporters.

“The mentality is something I have noticed in that dressing room.”

What hasn’t gone unnoticed is the defensive improvement: a side that kept just one clean sheet in their first six league games, conceding 12, has let in seven in their last six, but kept three clean sheets in the last four.

“There was a lot of criticism in the early part of the season, and rightly so, with the amount of goals we conceded,” said Caddis. “Four of the last six league games now have been clean sheets, so there's so much to be positive about.

“But the big thing for me is the shift in mentality, it was really, really there.”

Fortunately, Caddis has virtually a full squad to select from as he prepares for a run of three games in a week – starting at home to Southport today, with a midweek trip to Worksop and then a visit to his former club Hereford in a week’s time.

“Everyone's match fit, everyone's started games, so we'll use the squad across the next three games, but we have to remain really positive, because there is loads to be positive about, there really is,” he said.

Lynn go into today’s game against a side third from bottom of the table, but Caddis insists no one, inside the dressing room or around the corridor in the manager’s office, will be counting chickens.

“We're in a good spot at the moment,” he said. “We know that for every Telford (5-0 away win) for example there's a Marine (4-1 home defeat), so we know that football, if you get complacent, can bite you in the backside.

“The players, they're not a group that will get complacent. We won't allow it, but they don't allow it in the dressing room.

“The intensity levels are still there in training, there's no getting giddy and above ourselves, we still know that we've got a long, long way to go.”

Having reflected on the opening 12 games, Caddis can look forward to the fixture list that takes Lynn to the new year. Realism is a Caddis byword: he knows that every peak has a trough. It’s how deep you allow the trough to be.

“Only four months ago we were fighting relegation right through to the last day so we've changed a lot,” he said. “At the moment it's going pretty well - we will go through another spell where results will be difficult, but we want that spell now to be where we might draw one and win a couple and then draw another, rather than going on losing one or two in a row and stuff like that.

“At the moment everything is really positive. We're looking forward to the period from now until January, which is a massive period for us.

“I know when I first took the job for this season it was to see where we were at after 10 games but now we're in a decent position after 12. It's now about maintaining it right through to January and then whatever happens from January onwards, you'll finish where you deserve to finish.”