Player recruitment
Do you view it as inevitable that we will lose some of the better players each season and so see it as a positive opportunity to refresh the squad? Are you pleased with recruitment this year?

The last few seasons the talent Lingfield has produced has been top draw. A lot of youngsters start their football careers here and always go on to better clubs. It is always good to refresh the squad but in particular this time as we had such a good season last season and I really thought we would keep the squad together and have a crack at it with adding only a few players. As all football people know though, that is not the way it works out. We have lost Tom Green, Jay Simpson, Josh McArthur Nolan and Louis Gates who all have bright futures ahead of them, but we have added more talent to the squad. We attract this talent due to myself and my assistant Ben giving them the freedom to express themselves on the pitch. Our recruitment for this season has been really, really good.

Where have we strengthened the squad? Who have we recruited in each area?

We have strengthened more on our attacking options than in our defensive area. In goal we have brought Tom Marshall in from the Maidstone United academy who is young and a great lad who we look forward to working with and progressing his “car”(as said on X). Note: I hope I am not the only one who has no idea what this means. We needed to do this as Jack Webb Olley who has re-signed is out for a while as he recovers from an injury.

We have kept the main core of players but added a defender in Jack Porter as a replacement for Tom Green. A different type of defender but Jack reminds me of a former Linger in Charlie Naylor - now at Chatham - very solid and likes to play. We have also brought in Kalan Rock who has brought a few mates down that have impressed us as well. A run of games will get the best out of him and I look forward to progressing him.

Midfield we’ve added: Elliott Cannon, who we tried to persuade to come here at the back end of last season and admire him a lot. Hamza Abubakari, a real, real talent who I am excited to watch this season. Kobi Asante, an engine in the midfield and was recommended by Jay Simpson to come down to Lingfield. Khavarn Williams, has not played 90 minutes since 2021 but an attacking player that I will have a few '7 dayers' in for when he starts to get going. Note: for those not familiar with the rules a club must put in a 7 day notice if they wish to talk to one of your players.

Upfront we have kept Conor Wilford and Dennis Asante but also added talent in youngster Keanan Allassani. I hope he will take after his footballing brothers Drew and Reise with them doing one on one sessions with him and also learning playing with us. Who knows Dulwich fans may have a future Allassani member. He knows where the goal is too. The last one is raw talent Ousmane Dansoko who has been at the Velenti Academy and was recommended to come by his coach. I look forward to working with him this season.

Aims for the league season
What are your aims for this season our fifth in the Premier Division? There were initially only two fixtures issued but now you can comment looking further ahead. If we are to move up the table this season Midhurst & Easebourne must be a team we need to take points off as they were one place and twelve points ahead of us last time. Our first win came in our sixth game so are you hoping to repeat our home win over Saltdean United in the second match?

Every manager will be like 'we can win the league', but that is not me. I will be honest, if we keep suspensions down and be injury free, then we can be up there with a shout of the play-offs. Every club knows it is a tough game when they face us and if we keep fit throughout the season we will be up there. The fixtures have been released now and the first ten fixtures are a good test for us. Come October it sort of pans out and we have a tougher month, playing league favourites Haywards Heath at the end of the month. The local derbies against Crawley Down Gatwick are surprisingly not on Bank Holidays this season – the Boxing Day / Easter Monday games are against Crowborough Athletic with hopefully a big crowd there for Boxing Day. August Bank Holiday Monday is a journey to Little Common, just on the edge of Bexhill, for an 11am kick off.

This Saturday's trip to Midhurst & Easebourne – with the ground located in Easebourne - is one of our long ones but it gets it out the way but we will not be travelling to any games just to make up numbers this season and hopefully we can kick start our season off with a win there, taking forward our performances in our friendlies. Tuesday will be a tough home game to start with against Saltdean United. They made it hard for us last season with us only winning 2-1 and towards the end of the season, fighting to stay up, they bullied us to win 4-1.

As always I look to start the season off with two wins and it is the same this year. It is probably the same outlook for all the teams. I wish all the clubs and managers the best of luck throughout the season.

Up The Lingers!

Dowie