QUENTIN TOWNSEND plans to waste little time in completing his summer signings within a couple of weeks of the end of Pershore Town’s season.
The manager believes he has built the foundations of a squad to compete with the top teams in Midland League Division One since taking over last November.
The first target is to ensure the bulk of the squad commit themselves for next season and then Townsend wants half a dozen additions to bolster the squad.
“I think the basis of the squad is already here so it’s a question of targeting the five or six players I feel will improve the squad,” said Townsend.
“I’ve got my holidays booked in the first week of May and ideally I would hope to get agreements from all the players before then.
“I don’t want to waste any time. I’ve been in a situation before when I’ve waited into the summer and then found the players I wanted had already had three or four other clubs interested in them.
“We’ll be coming back to start pre-season in the last week of June and it would be great if the squad was already in place.”
Townsend has no intention of hanging up his boots after featuring for the 90 minutes against Stafford Town.
Injuries prompted the former Stourbridge, Evesham and Hereford player to lace up his boots again as goals from Gareth Evans and Pawel Tomczak sealed Pershore’s first win in five matches in a 2-1 home success on Saturday.
“My focus is on being a manager but I know I can play at this level,” said the 39-year-old. “People say at your age you must ache after playing but I feel fine. It’s another option.”
Townsend felt Pershore thoroughly deserved the points against Stafford and he hopes it will spark a positive end to the season.
“Apart from one spell, we pretty much dominated from start to finish,” said the manager.
“The only disappointment was that we only led 2-0 at half time because we missed a fair few chances which would have really put the game to bed.
“Pawel caused them all sorts of problems up front – he ran riot. He has made a massive difference.”
Former Southam striker Tomczak, however, has to miss Saturday’s trip to Cadbury Athletic as he has family commitments, but he should be available for Tuesday’s rearranged trip to Pelsall Villa.
Goalkeeper Andy Yarnold is also ruled out after picking up a knee injury and he joins skipper Shaun Griffiths on the sidelines.
“Three of our last four games are against teams around us and the other game is against Leicester Road at the top of the table so they are definitely winnable games,” said Townsend. “We want to end the season strongly.”
Turn to page 39 for a match report of the win against Stafford Town.