Newmarket Town manager Michael Shinn pleased with additions of Jose Santa de la Paz and Stan Leech to his attacking options
No team scored more goals in the Thurlow Nunn League Premier Division last season than Newmarket Town.
The Jockeys found the back of the net on 92 occasions during their 36 league fixtures – and a further five times in the play-offs – as they secured an historic promotion to the Pitching In Isthmian League North Division.
Yet ahead of life at a higher level, manager Michael Shinn has opted to bolster his attacking ranks with two new forwards.
Last week the club confirmed that Jose Santa de la Paz had agreed to join the club, while over the weekend centre-forward Stan Leech’s switch from Cambridge City was revealed.
And with Josh Lee and Jordan Foster, who scored 42 goals between them last term, agreeing to remain at the Tristel Stadium, Shinn will have a wealth of options in the final third.
He said: “Last year Josh suffered an injury around Christmas time and we found it difficult to replace him.
“Jordan did well with the amount of goals he scored, but there was a lot of pressure on him and if he’d got injured as well then we would have been in trouble.
“Will we score as many goals next season? Probably not. But what Jose and Stan give us is some extra options.
“With Jose, he’ll give us some extra pace and we’re going to need that next season. It give us a different way of playing. And with Stan, I first saw him when he scored a couple of goals for Saffron Walden’s Under-18s against Newmarket – I’ve kept an eye on him since then.
“With James Seymour retiring, he was the option of a target man – someone we could get the ball to in the box. We now have that with Stan.
“We think a lot of Josh and Jordan – they both know that – and we’re going to need all of these options over the season.”
As well as those new faces coming in, Shinn is equally as pleased that almost all of the previous term’s squad have agreed to stay put.
And he is confident that the unity and character they showed to get promoted will be worth some points at Step 4.
He added: “It’s really important that the boys are staying together. There was never any talk about not testing themselves at a higher level – they’re excited.
“If potential new players become available as the summer goes on then that’s a conversation we’ll have, but I want to be loyal to the group.
“They deserve the chance to play together at a higher level. That willingness they have to run for each other, to put in that graft and tough it out, it will be a worth a few points as the season goes on.”
Shinn has also revealed that Joe Robinson, who missed all of last season with a cruciate ligament injury, is set to be involved in pre-season training.
