New Market Drayton Town boss Dan Dawson in bullish mood

The Gingerbread Men have endured years of misery but a recent reprieve from the drop ensured they steered clear of a third consecutive demotion.

There is an optimism in the air at Greenfields now, however, after the club appointed Onneley-based Dawson from Redgate Clayton – champions after an invincible campaign in the Staffordshire County Premier Division – as well as having assembled a new board and committee.

Dawson met with six to eight existing players, who will return for pre-season in a few weeks as part of a much-changed group of players to be trimmed down at a later date as the club plan for another crack at the North West Counties League’s First Division South following last season’s struggle.

“The first port of call was to watch as many games back, review challenges and what went wrong and why, and to review players currently involved,” said Dawson.

“There is a chunk of them we are bringing through to pre-season. We want to have a really strong team – and if they are strong and good enough then we want the core to be local players.

“But first they have to be good enough to compete at that level.

“I haven’t come into Market Drayton to survive in the league, we want to try to push the club on and the players will need to match that ambition.

“Then it was identifying new players to bring in. There will be a lot of new players this year, that’s a certain, hopefully some really good players, a bit of a mixture, some from lower leagues, step seven, and some from the higher step four and five, maybe the odd academy lad released. We’re happy with how that’s going.”

Dawson’s time at Redgate officially ended with a penalty shootout defeat to Rocester in the Leek Cup final two Fridays ago but that did not take the shine off a double-winning invincible season of 29 wins and one draw.

It won’t be a full group joining the boss across from his former Newcastle-under-Lyme base though, he said: “Yes there might be a few players that come with us, but I don’t think it will be the amount people are expecting.

“There are lots of players in the league that compete, no doubt, but there are lots of circumstances as to why.”