ROYSTON Town president Alan Barlow says manager Paul Attfield has been ‘inundated’ with applications from players wanting to join the club ahead of next season.

Attfield has already spoken of his desire to bring in three or four fresh faces before pre-season which starts on Tuesday, July 6.

And Barlow isn’t surprised there are so many players looking to move to Garden Walk after the excellent form shown by the crows at the back end of last season.

“The team were absolutely fantastic in the second half of the season and I think we’ve got a really good chance of getting promotion next season,” said Barlow.

“Paul is a brilliant manager and he knows in his head the sort of players the team needs. He has a very good knowledge of local football.

“At this moment in time none of the current squad will be leaving the club and we feel it’s especially important that we maintain the core of the squad.

“We are always looking to improve our squad, though, because we do not want to be in the Molton Spartan South Midlands Premier Division for the next 10 years.

Barlow also spoke about the need to introduce a play-off system into the league in order to give more incentives for clubs fighting for promotion.

“Having just one promotion spot is not fair and offers no incentive for clubs to gain promotion. A lot clubs’ season’s are over by January or February because there is just no hope of making that solitary promotion spot.

“Clubs are always having to invest in order to keep up with everyone else but if they don’t have a realistic chance of getting out of the division then something is wrong there.”