NPL Division One East
Wayne Benn is running the rule over several trialists as he prepares to potentially bolster his Ossett United squad before the mouth-watering opening day clash at Pontefract Collieries on August 14th.
Two appeared in the 1-0 win over Carlton Palmer’s Grantham Town on Saturday while another is expected to play in tonight’s battle with a York City X1 at Ingfield.
“We still have a couple of weeks left to work on things and tinker and we’re still looking at one-or-two players to complete the squad,” Benn told Non League Yorkshire.
“We had a look at two lads on Saturday who haven’t been with us in pre-season for various reasons.
“There’ll be another new face in terms of a trialist (against York City).
“We may do something more play-wise between now and the start of the season.
“We need to improve the strengthen the depth of the squad.
“We’re probably a little bit short in the midfield area than I’d like to be and that’s something we need to address.
“I don’t mean short in quality, I mean short in terms of options and numbers.
“We’re looking at that area as well as another without giving too much away.
“We need to get the right numbers in the squad and I think everybody is going to end up top-heavy in terms of numbers because of the pandemic. We’re not on our own.”
Although pre-season results cannot be taken as an indicator for the real stuff, Ossett have enjoyed a solid run with four wins and two draws.
Benn said: “(Pre-season) is going well.
“If you place any emphasis on results which we don’t, we’re unbeaten.
“It has been good in that respect.
“The performances, I believe, have been getting better game-by-game.
“I thought we were really good against Grantham on Saturday and that was a really difficult game for us and I think we passed that really well.
“We have two more really tough games in York and Matlock so we’ll find out a little bit more about ourselves.
“So far I’m pretty pleased with where we are up to.
“A bit of a downside to pre-season has been an injury to our captain Jack Cowgill so that’s a negative but hopefully he won’t be far away from being ready for the start of the new season.”
Benn is now looking forward to the visit of York and he expects another good workout for his men.
“I don’t think it will be a full-strength team, he said.
“It will be more likely to be a combination of first team players and under 23s players.
“But regardless it will be a strong test for us and we’re looking forward to it.”