MANAGER Brad Quinton expects a significant number of the players who got Braintree Town promoted last season to be joining their adventure in National League football next year.

Quinton has wasted little time in making plans for his team's return to the top flight of non-league football following their Vanarama National League South play-off final success at Hampton and Richmond Borough.

He has already seen Jon Muleba and Christian Frimpong take up offers of extended contracts and while he knows there will be plenty of new players hoping to join this summer, he expects the majority of last year's successful squad to press on with them at the higher level.

Quinton said: "It's been a bit surreal since that game at Hampton and Richmond and I don't think it will really sink in until we're back for pre-season, but we have already been making plans.

"I have met up with most of the boys and have also been talking to some new ones as well, but I've been waiting to see what the final budget will be and we'll go from there.

"The club has been negotiating a new sponsorship deal and that could have an impact as well so we'll have to see.

"But we've been offering the boys from last year new contracts .

"To be honest, with the season that we had last year and where we will be playing next year, I'm sure they can't wait to put pen to paper when the contracts are available.

"I think 80 to 90 per cent of them will agree terms and that's all down to the hard work that we and they have put in.

"But I'm still getting lots of agents offering me new players so there is a lot going on.

"It's still early doors for us as we've just finished the play-offs but a lot of players have been finished for a few weeks and things are quick to move on."

Quinton said he expected players to return for pre-season training in the last week in June and the club had also set out some dates for trial players to come along to showcase themselves.

The Iron boss said: "The size of the squad that we eventually go with will depend on the final budget that we get.

"I want to finalise things with the players who got us there first and we'll then see what else we can add as we do want to go with a bigger squad than we had last year."

Quinton will want his team to be prepared for the start of their pre-season campaign and some of their summer games have already been finalised.

The Iron will start with a trip to Newmarket Town on Saturday, July 7, before the visit of Championship side Ipswich Town to Braintree on Saturday, July 14, when the Blues have confirmed that they will be bringing their first-team squad.

On Tuesday, July 17, Braintree will then visit AFC Sudbury and a trip to Dereham Town will follow on Saturday, July 21, before a Tuesday night trip to Coggeshall Town on July 24 and then a home game against Chelmsford City on Saturday, July 28.

The club has also said negotiations are on-going about a match against a League Two side on Tuesday, July 10.