Devonshire set to make his pick from Braintree triallists (From Braintree and Witham Times)

Devonshire set to make his pick from Braintree triallists

8:50am Thursday 19th July 2012 in Blue Square Conference South By Simon Spurgeon

Alan Devonshire is keeping a close eye on players as they look to earn deals with Braintree Town.

The Iron manager is taking his team to face local rivals Witham Town for a pre-season fixture tonight, with a number of trial players bidding to earn themselves a place in the squad.

A group of triallists have featured in the Iron’s opening 10-0 win at Long Melford on Saturday and the 4-1 win at Bury Town on Tuesday.
 

That group has included former Braintree forward David Bryant, former Redbridge striker Kane Sheppard, Lithuanian forward Nikolaj Misiuk, ex-West Ham youngster and Nike Academy graduate Chase O’Neil, pacey Maidenhead winger Jerome Walker, former Northampton Town midfielder Nathaniel Wedderburn, ex-Brentford defender Jack Ward, experienced midfielder Ben Smith, who has spent time with Southend, Hereford and Crawley in his career and striker Jordan Cox.
 

And Devonshire expects to take his picks from within that group of players.

He said: “We are looking at them closely over the first few games and we’ll be making some decisions later on this week.
 

“The group that played at Long Melford is near enough the group I’m looking at now.

“We are still looking but there should only be the odd one or two trialists coming in now other than the ones we’ve got.
 

“I’ll make my decisions by the end of the week.

“We have near enough the squad that was with us last year other than the three that have moved on (Ben Wright, Aswad Thomas and Jai Reason) and the four we’ve already got in (Daniel Sparkes, Josh Dawkins, Sam Habergham and Callum McNish) and we’re looking to add probably another three or four.
 

“But there’s no rush as there’s still a month to go before the start of the season.

“I think everyone knows we are looking at another striker and we are talking to quite a few of them at the moment.

“I’d imagine three from the group we saw at Long Melford and hopefully one more coming in.”

See the Braintree and Witham Times for more on the Iron's pre-season plans and to get the thoughts on the season ahead of skipper Kenny Davis.