North West Counties
Steeton manager Roy Mason is seeking to add experience to his squad.
Mason believes his youthful side are short in a couple of areas as he prepares for the season opener against Cleator Moor Celtic on the 30th July.
“We’re still looking,” Mason told Non League Yorkshire.
“There’s teams already chopping and changing in pre-season and I don’t envisage being where we want to be squad-wise for a couple of weeks.
“I know the season starts in two weeks but there is always that fall-out from teams at a higher level when players don’t get game-time.
“There’s still a couple of positions we need to strengthen in.
“(The defeat to Silsden) has given us answers on some of the trialists and fringe players.
“A centre-half is a position we need to recruit for and we have known that since Jerry White retired.
“We got lucky through last season with just two centre-half, that’s not going to happen again.
“We need more strength-in-depth because we haven’t got another player who could fill in as an emergency.
“You could see (against Silsden) how young these players are and we need that bit of experience and edge to us.”
Losing goal machine Kayle Price is a major blow to Steeton.
Finding a replacement is a hard task and Mason says he may have to change his team’s style of play.
“Getting someone like Kayle Price is never easy,” he said.
“Thirty-goal-a-season strikers are sought-after and command big fees.
“We’re looking but we may have to tweak the way we play.
“With Kayle it was easier for us to play two up top because it suited him playing off a big man.
“We may have to look at going three up top with two wider players or one of those wider players dropping in as a ten.”
One position Mason hopes is sorted is the goalkeeper.
Steeton went through stoppers for fun last season due to injuries.
“We have Jordan Moorhouse and Stuart Cross and hopefully we won’t need anyone else,” he said.
“Because of our goalkeeping scenario last season I have a list as long as your arm with numbers.
“I have about ten on speed dial!”