MANAGER Glen Driver says he won't be afraid to keep moulding his Braintree Town squad once the Vanarama National League South season has started on August 3.

Driver is pragmatic about the situation that he and his squad are in as he has had to bring a group together pretty much from scratch in an extremely short space of time and he accepts that it will be an ongoing process, even once the campaign has started.

He is confident he has some talented players in his squad who are hungry to prove themselves at step two of the non-league pyramid, but said this week - in the wake of a 2-1 pre-season win at Maldon & Tiptree - that he is prepared to still make changes if strong players become available elsewhere.

He said: “We do have to settle down and put our trust in the group but I think things can change in the first few months of a season.

“There are always people – good quality players - who are sitting on benches elsewhere and may have been looking for big money over the summer, but may now be ready to accept what our club can afford.

“If they are better than what we have then they will come in.

“That is how Braintree has to be run – there can’t be any sentiment.

“If I lose my first eight or nine games on the trot there won’t be any sentiment from the chairman towards me as I’ll be out of a job.

“It’s same for players.

“But we have to seal it down between now and Saturday and myself and (assistant manager) Tony (Kinsella) will have a few chats.

“We both sing off the same page and we won’t be far off, but then I was offered four players in midweek.

“I was offered one from a pro club so we’ll have a look at him (in training) on Thursday and then probably against King’s Lynn on Saturday and we’ll just keep putting pressure on people.

“If you don’t then people get sloppy."

One change that has been made this week is that Aaron Lamont has moved on after spending much of pre-season with Driver's side, but the iron boss had brought in former Dover Athletic and Dartford midfielder Tom Murphy and had been impressed by how he did at Maldon on Tuesday.

Driver added: “Aaron Lamont was released this week as the travelling he was doing was getting to him a little bit and we haven’t made decisions on one or two others.

“We are a lot further forward now than what we have been and we’ll just keep looking.

“Tom Murphy has come in and done very well at Maldon and he’s another player who has turned my head."