Witham Town manager Adam Flint is delighted with the team spirit that he has seen in his side during a successful pre-season campaign.

It is Flint’s first summer in charge at the Village Glass Stadium and they conclude their preparations for the forthcoming Ryman League division north season with a home game against Mark Sansom’s Braintree Town Academy team tomorrow.

With the Iron’s first-team away for their opening Vanarama National League fixture of the season at North Ferriby, Flint hopes their fans who haven’t travelled will come along to see their club’s up and coming players.

And the Witham boss is also keen for his own side to end their pre-season strongly ahead of their division north opener at Soham Town Rangers on August 13.

“It’s all going really well and I think we’re looking all right,” said Flint.

“We had a good (2-1) win against Coggeshall on Saturday and that shows we’re looking strong as they are a good side.

“We have managed to keep the majority of the squad together from last year and that’s a key thing as the spirit seems much better now.

“That showed through on Saturday as when it got tough, they were together as a group.

“One of the players said to me that it’s the best dressing room he’s been in and there’s competition for places all over.

“Everyone is excited about the season ahead.”

While the core of his team Continued on page 55 has stayed stable since last season, Flint has brought in a few new faces, including strikers Usman Adeniji and Timothy Monsheju, and he feels they will be stronger in attack this year.

Flint said: “I think we’ve added in more quality with the players who we have brought in, especially going forward.

“We’ve scored 29 goals in five games, which isn’t bad against any level of opposition.

“Our threat up front is something that we definitely wanted to focus on and the way that we break teams down.

“We have also worked on having an alternative game plan so we can operate in different ways.

“You saw the way some other teams did it to us last year and it can’t always be pretty.

“I want us to be in mid-table this year.

“It is about getting a good platform from a good start and I believe we now have the players who can do that so that we can then kick on.”

Flint admitted it had been tough cutting his squad down to size, though, with Tom Cockin, George Cocklin and Tom Holdstock all among those moving on and the Town boss said he wished them well.

However, he has managed to keep a number of players in his squad, including Jon Hudson, Jamie Bull and Liam Whipps, who have stepped up from the club’s reserves and the first-team boss has continued to be pleased with their progresss.

“We have a number of Witham youngsters coming through as I’ve been really impressed with them,” he added.

“Sometimes you get one maybe two in a reserve team, but we have four or five who can do it and they’ve all done well in pre-season when they’ve been given the chance.”

The game against Braintree Town Academy kicks off at the Village Glass Stadium at 3pm on Saturday, with admission £4 for adults and £2 for under-16s.