On the eve of our annual pre-season members’ meeting, Gavin Macpherson has provided some valuable insight into the various arrivals and departures ahead of the new season.

Gavin has already expressed his views both on the club website and social media on the recruitment of new forwards Lamar Reynolds and Tommy Wood and the respective qualities both offer, as well as defenders Avan Jones and Ruaridh Donaldson.

Several of last season’s squad, as we know, have departed, most notably Lennon Peake who has opted for full-time football at Ebbsfleet and Joe Wright who has dropped down a division to sign for Aveley.

Gavin admits the situation regarding Joe was not ideal.

“I would like to thank Joe for everything he’s done, not only last season but in previous years,” said Gav. “Joe came in at a difficult time when we really needed a keeper and like Rhys (Forster) was a massive part in helping maintain our status at step two and I’m thankful for that. For this coming season I had tried to keep the goalkeeping situation at the club in a strong position. I realise now with the lack of guarantees that this was an ambitious challenge and I totally realise why Joe has made the decision to sign elsewhere.”

At the other end of the pitch, to put the difficulty of signing quality strikers into perspective, the management team have spoken to over 40 forward players since the end of last season.

“It’s very simple, we don’t have the pulling power of some clubs but I’m very pleased with what we’ve got,” said Gav. “The sorts of figures I have met with is way out of our comfort zone but I believe we’re in a good place with  those we’ve recruited.”

While we are saying goodbye to the likes of Lennon, Joe, Hisham Kasimu, Jack Smith, Anointed Chukwa and John Oyenuga, we are certainly in a better place than this time last year, a raft of players having re-signed for the new campaign including Sam Youngs, Mickey Parcell and the whole of last season’s back three who played such a huge part in our survival.

“It’s so important to have retained the defensive backbone since they were largely responsible for the form table in the second half of the season,” said Gavin.

“We know we have a foundation to compete and now we also have competition for places. One of the reasons we signed Ruaridh was that he’s a leader and also versatile. Plus he fits the ethics of this football club.”

AW

Note to members: Gavin will be attending Thursday’s meeting and will be conducting a Q and A session