Everything is in place at Spalding United for another promotion push, starting on Saturday at home to Bedford Town.
The Tulips face a tough start to their first season at step three with Tuesday bringing a trip to former non-league giants Kettering Town for their second Southern League Premier Midland fixture.
With manager Elliot Sandy enjoying a quick break before the serious action starts, his assistant James Clifton was left to deal with the build-up, including training sessions on Tuesday and Thursday.
“Everyone is fit and we’ve got no suspensions hanging over so it’ll just be a case of shaking out any stiffness,” he said. “It seems to have been a long pre-season but we needed it so we can be ready for the glut of fixtures when we’ll be playing Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday-Tuesday.
“We’ve got two tough games to start with, so it’s important that we can rotate throughout the squad.”
Sandy has been busy during the summer, snapping up a bevy of new signings to go with the nucleus of last season’s Northern Premier League Midlands Division champion squad.
Clifton said: “We’ve got a good mixture of players. We’ve kept the core from last year and strengthened in a few areas. We’re happy with the squad we’ve got but would never say no to anyone who becomes available who we felt could strengthen us. We’re always on the look-out.”
Clifton said the manager had not set any targets for the new campaign but was sure everyone at the club would be aiming high.
“For me, I want to be up there challenging towards the top of the table come the end of the season,” he said. “We want to keep the momentum going from last season’s title win and carry on driving upwards.
“Tamworth got back-to-back promotions and look at Ipswich Town as examples of what can be done if you aim high after being promoted.”
Even though this will be Spalding’s first season at such a high level in the football pyramid, only three steps from the Football League, Clifton is confident the team can rise to the occasion.
“Quite a few of our squad have experience of playing at this level and higher,” he said. “The higher level will also mean more time on the ball. A lot of our younger players have come out of full-time clubs so the fact they’ll be able to play more football will suit us well.”
The Tulips completed their pre-season friendlies with a 2-0 defeat at Quorn on Saturday, giving them a record of two wins, two draws and two defeats from the programme, plus a 2-0 Lincolnshire FA Senior Cup win at Grantham Town.
“It was a well-balanced warm-up” said Clifton. “We’ve all done this many times before and there were no real surprises. It was a good mix of matches and we got some game time into everyone.”
