MAYNARD | "The lads will leave everything out there"

Stuart Maynard feels his Wealdstone side will get more cohesive as the season wears on and would rather the weekend's defeat at home to Chelmsford City came in a friendly and not in a league game.

The Stones went down 3-0 at home to National League South opposition on Saturday, but the Manager feels the result will serve to refocus minds and that these types of things can happen when you are bedding in so many new players, particularly in the backline.

"We are a couple of weeks behind, not in fitness but just in terms of gelling," he said. "There is a process and it takes a bit longer for new players to settle in because of the way we play, but we are excited about this squad we have.

"The result against Chelmsford wasn't ideal, but there are lots of factors as to why, but we don't have a blame culture here. We never will. We are all in it together and when you have days like this, that is when you see the character. I'd much rather have these tests now than on Saturday against Bromley."

By the time the exciting game against Bromley, the FA Trophy winners, at The Vale on Saturday comes round, new defenders Mason Barrett and Deji Elerwere will have had another couple of sessions to work alongside each other, the combinations in midfield will be more fluent while Maynard and Matt Saunders will have had another week to drill into this upgraded squad their ideas and patters of play.

"We have a full week to prepare and we'll make sure we get the prep right," he said. "We still won't be as fluent as we would like, but I don't think any team in the league will be at this stage. We feel we are in a good place. We are working really hard and the lads will give everything and leave everything out there. I can assure fans of that."

Tickets are still available for our 2022/23 season opener against Bromley on Saturday both online and by cash or card at the turnstiles.

We are also running a three-match bundle offer at our 2021/22 season prices for our first three home games which includes the Bromley match plus the following home games against FC Halifax Town and Yeovil Town, this is only available online.