Mildenhall Town manager Phil Weavers confident new signings will drive club on this season

Manager Phil Weavers is confident that it will be the drive and determination from within the playing squad that pushes Mildenhall Town on towards the newly-instated Thurlow Nunn League Premier Division play-offs this season.

Having finished sixth in his first campaign in charge in 2022/23, it has been a busy summer of recruitment for Weavers following the arrivals of Lloyd Groves (player-coach), Jon Kaye, Olly Hughes, Ben Nolan, Jarid Robson and Simon Swinton.

Those additions all have higher-league experience and so Weavers believes that the group will set their own high standards, rather than him having to continue relaying the same messages.

He said: “There’s always a certain level of pressure and expectation that comes with playing for Mildenhall.

“It’s something you have to handle and block out all of the noise on the outside.

“We’re really happy with the players that have come in and at least a couple of them have been very vocal about the fact that they’re not here just to enjoy themselves.

“They want to be successful, they want to win things and as a manger that is exactly the type of characters you want in your squad.

“The play-offs gives teams something extra to play for right to the end of the season. It’s another option for teams and we’ll hopefully be one of those.”

If Mildenhall are to build upon last season’s performance they will need to slash the draws column. Twelve of their 38 league matches ended all square, which was the second highest total in the division.

Weavers added: “Draws kill you when you’re trying to finish high up a league.

“Ironically, at the start of last season we spoke about rolling the dice a bit, going for wins when we’re drawing but it didn’t happen and we actually ended up with too many draws.

“Obviously if you play three games and draw all three, it’s the same amount of points as winning one and losing two so I’m keen for us to go for it.

“When you look at a lot of those draws, some of them felt like wins because we found ourselves behind and nicked late goals.

“We conceded too many soft goals and didn’t score enough of the chances at the other end. We scored 79 goals, which isn’t a bad total, but we created a lot more chances than that.

“At times we weren’t good enough in both boxes and that’s where games are won and lost.

“With the signings we’ve made I think we’ll cope with the pressure a bit more. We’ll be able to get through those tricky moments in games and turn some of those draws into more positive results.”

Mildenhall will have to wait until Tuesday evening to get their new season under way when Long Melford, who are skippered by their former player Jacob Brown, will be the visitors to The Riverside Stadium (7.45pm).